PEIRA gets another interim chief

Islamabad: Continuing with its policy of adhocism towards private education in Islamabad, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) has made another officer the interim chairman of the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA).

CADD Joint Secretary (Education) Dr Tariq Moj will hold the ‘look-after charge’ of the PEIRA chairman’s office until the position is permanently filled.

The developments comes after the nomination of acting PEIRA Chairman Musaddaq Ahmad Khan for the six-month National Security and War Course 2016-17 at the National Defence University.

The self-financing PEIRA, which is administratively overseen by the CADD and is tasked with regulating over 1,000 private schools in the capital city, has seen change of guard seven times during the last three years.  However, it has been struggling to deliver the goods for being without a permanent top boss.

Earlier, too, one CADD officer after another held the office on interim basis.  The last permanent PEIRA chief was Atif Mehmood Kayani, who had abandoned the office in June 2013 after he came in for strong criticism from the Supreme Court over a mere 14 years education, including a bachelor’s degree with very low grades.

Dr Afzal Babur, president of PSN, which represents Islamabad’s low-cost private schools, feared that adhocism would cripple the working of the already-inefficient body tasked with registering and regulating private educational institutions in the federal capital.