PM takes notice of illegal appointments in HEC

After Higher Education Commission (HEC) refused to remove its Executive Director (ED) and other Management Position (MP) scale officers from their illegal positions, the Establishment Division appointed a federal secretary to post of ED. Action against the illegal appointment of other HEC employees is yet to be taken.
The Establishment Division, through a notification issued on October 4, had already termed all MP scale appointments illegal, since they were made without the prior approval of the prime minister.
The division, through a notification on November 28, appointed Federal Secretary Major (r) Qamar Zaman as acting ED of the HEC, in the place of Dr Sohail Naqvi. The newly appointed ED took charge on Thursday and held an introductory meeting with HEC Chairman Dr Javed Laghari.
HEC had illegally extended the service tenure of Dr Sohail in a meeting held on August 27. The extension had been granted without the approval of the prime minister, who had the authority to extend the contract of all MP scale officials. Dr Sohail’s tenure had been extended to his third term of four years as ED. The chairperson had then extended the services of Prof Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Advisor (HRD) (in MP-II), for a period of three months up to a maximum of four such terms (his 9th year in HEC after retirement as Faisalabad Agriculture University VC.
These illegal extensions had been widely reported in press. The prime minister had taken notice of this and advised HEC to hold the extension and submit a report about the process through the Ministry of Law and Establishment Division within seven days for the information. Despite the prime minister’s instructions, HEC notified the extensions on September 7, in violation of the PM’s order.
Around 9 officers at different MP scales are currently employed at HEC, Dr Riaz Qureshi, Khawaja Azam Ali, Jalil Ahmed, Anees Sadozai, Noor Amna Malik, Zia Batool and Anwar Amjad. The government had introduced MP pay scales to attract professionals and experts from the private sector to serve in public sector organizations. The positions in HEC had been filled on the basis of favoritism. DG (Services) Anees Sadozai, who had been employed at MP-III, and DG (Quality Assurance) Zia Batool had entry level management experience, but had been working at HEC as project managers, in clear violation of the appointment criteria.
The HEC management claimed that the prime minister had conferred controlling authority on the commission, and appointments had been made on authority delegated to them. The prime minister however claimed that he had never delegated the power to appoint officers in MP scales. The commission had been misled on the matter and the HEC management had used the forum for their own purposes.
The HEC management justified their actions by saying that the federal and provincial secretaries, who were members of the commission, had never objected to these recruitments. However the Federal Secretary (Education) and Federal Secretary (S and T) had not shown up at 90 percent of the commission’s meetings.