Zubair Qureshi
Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training Senator Irfan Siddiqui has held that the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is committing a crime by not regularizing teachers working on daily wages for last 10-14 years.
He expressed these views while chairing a meeting of the standing committee held to consider the appointment and posting of Junior lady Teachers at Islamabad Model Colleges.
One of the affectees apprised the committee that they were appointed on daily wages and after 10 to 14 years of service instead of regularizing the service, FDE decided that the destiny of employees from BPS 1 to 15 will be decided by the Cabinet and referred the cases of employees from BS 16 and above to Federal Public Service Commission.
She further added that instead of regularizing the daily wages teachers the government has recently announced 525 posts in different grades.
The committee chairman advised the affectees to provide all the relevant documents and directed the ministry to come up with definite answer to this pertinent issue in the next meeting.
He also expressed displeasure over the absence of DG FDE and observed that regualrization was the basic right of these teachers, who have been in service from the 10 to 15 years.
The meeting was held at Parliament House on Friday. Irfan directed that Secretary and Relevant Minister must ensure their presence in the next meeting of the committee.
While discussing the point of public importance raised by Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi relating to delay in examination faced by Students of Law in Bahauddin Zakariya University Senator Irfan Siddiqui questioned as to why the university didn’t conduct examination of law students despite clear recommendation by the committee in its previous meeting.
In reply to that, Mansoor Akbar Kundi, VC of Bahauddin Zakariya University, stated that Supreme Court in its last hearing has restricted the university from the conducting the examination.
However, Senator Irfan Siddiqui maintained that there is nothing of this sort mentioned in the supreme court’s 25th November order. The Senate committee recommended the university to conduct the examination of law students within week and report back to the committee.
Furthermore, the senate committee deliberated on the Bill titled “The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill,2022”. Senator Fawzia Arshad, mover of the bill, stated that the bill aimed at making Subject “Computer Science” compulsory for one to twelve standard.
Officials of HEC apprised the committee that the Subject “Computer Science” is already been made mandatory by the Government and it is also incorporated in National Curriculum. Senator Irfan Siddiqui opined that there was no harm in passing the bill and it will provide further strength to HEC in enhancing the scope of computer science in national curriculum.
The committee deferred the deliberations on the bill till the next meeting. Moreover, the committee also discussed the bill titled “The Al-Ala University Bill,2022” moved by Senator Sarfarz Bugti.
Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman HEC, informed the committee that no individual has submitted any feasibility report to HEC for the establishment of the said university which is considered to be standard practice.
