FDE chief gets extension

Islamabad : Continuing with its policy of ad hocism towards public sector education in the Islamabad Capital Territory, the Ministry of Federal Education and Vocational Training has formally extended Islamabad College for Boys G-6/3 principal Dr Ali Ahmad Kharal's additional charge of the office of the Federal Directorate of Education's director general for three more months.

In late November last year, Dr. Ali Ahmad was told to act as a stand-in for the permanent FDE chief.

He was to hold the additional charge of the office for a period of three months or until it was filled permanently by an official from within the FDE or colleges. And now after the expiry of those three months, the BPS-21 (timescale) officer's term in office has been extended by the ministry for another three months.

The FDE, the regulator for Islamabad’s over 420 public sector schools and colleges, has been functioning without the head since the temporary DG, Hasnat Qureshi, relinquished the charge over four months ago.

Instead of filling the top vacancy on a permanent basis, the erstwhile Capital Administration and Development Division kept posting its one officer after another or outsiders as the interim FDE chief, causing unrest among the directorate’s own staff members. The federal education ministry, which took the administrative control of the FDE afterward, followed in the footsteps of the CADD and kept managing key offices at the directorate on ad-hoc basis.