Department of boards, universities to conduct test for appointing chairmen, controllers and audit officers

The Department of Boards and Universities has decided to conduct tests for the appointment of chairmen, controllers, secretaries and audit officers in all educational boards of Sindh.

This test will be conducted under the IBA Karachi. In this regard, Secretary Boards and Universities Abbas Baloch has sent a summary to the chief minister of Sindh.

It is said in the summary that a summary was moved to the chief minister on 27.09.2023 regarding making appointments in different positions in educational boards in Sindh, in which the chief minister had approved for initiating the process for filling up the vacant posts of chairman, secretary, controller of examinations and audit officer, i.e. publication of advertisement and subsequent selection through the Search Committee, relying upon existing provisions in the Sindh Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education Ordinance, 1972.

In subsequence of above, Universities & Boards Department had advertised the vacant positions of Chairman, Secretary, Controller of Examinations and Audit Officer.

Further, it is pertinent to mention that various petitions were filed in Hon’ble High Court of Sindh against the process of appointment of above-mentioned positions.

The summary further said that the High Court of Sindh in HCA 47/2024 has dismissed the stay and allowed the department to proceed with the appointment process through the Search Committee. This department is effectively pursuing the process of early appointments of above- cited officers through a competitive process to be conducted by the IBA Karachi and the Search Committee under the Search Committee’s Act, 2022.

According to the sources, since there are more than 200 candidates, it has been decided to conduct the test from the IBA Karachi so that only the successful candidates can be called for the interview. It should be remembered that all the Acts of the eight education boards of Sindh are separate, but none of the Acts mentions the test for the recruitment of chairman, controllers, secretaries and audit officers, nor does the Search Committee take the test for the appointment of the vice-chancellor.

Recently, due to the large number of candidates for the posts of director of finance in the universities of Sindh, the IBA Karachi had to conduct a test in which only the candidates who passed the test were qualified for the interview.