Bureaucrats being appointed as education board chairmen

Instead of appointing chairmen of the education boards of Sindh on merit, bureaucrats are being appointed in the name of a stopgap arrangement, it has been learnt.

The charge of the chairman post of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi is being given to the city commissioner, and that of the Sukkur and Nawabshah boards are being given to the respective commissioners of the two cities.

In this regard, provincial caretaker chief minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has approved the summary sent by Noor Muhammad Samoo, the secretary of the universities & boards department.

This step has been taken at a time when the schedule of the general elections is about to be announced. The election commission had earlier informed Sindh’s chief secretary that officers would be busy in election duties, so they should not be transferred, then the Board of Revenue stopped the transfer process. The then universities & boards minister Ismail Rahoo and secretary Mureed Rahimoon also stopped the appointments of the chairmen of five education boards selected by the search committee, even though these candidates were cleared by three credible intelligence agencies.

According to sources, the former minister had not wanted the appointments of board chairmen on merit, which was why a summary was sent to the then CM with negative remarks.

The universities & boards department has not made any changes in the summary even during the interim government’s rule. A large-scale transfer and appointment drive is also under way in the education department.

According to sources, PS Halim Soomro, who is deputed to the education minister, and PS Imtiaz Pathan, college education secretary, are involved in these transfers. Attempts were made to contact caretaker education minister Rana Hussain and Samoo, but they remained unreachable.