Superseding seniors, junior professors working as college principals

Islamabad:Many associate professors in Islamabad's model colleges are understood to be struggling to work under principals junior to them in terms of experience and educational qualifications.

These principal appointments were made in disregard of the employee seniority list during the tenure of the recently-removed FDE director-general, Dr. Ikram Ali Malik. Teachers told 'The News' that Najeebullah, who ranked 68th on the seniority list, was made the principal of the Islamabad Model College for Boys G-11/1 bypassing several senior associate professors and that, too, when he was on probation.

Similarly, Sharafat Ali Awan, who held the 20th position in the seniority list, was appointed principal to the IMCB Pakistan Town. Ghayur Hussain's appointment as the principal of the IMCB Maira Bhagwal also came after the FDE ignored several senior contenders, including Javed Iqbal Shah, Dr. Waheedu Zaman, Iranfanullah, Waseem Ahmed Shah and Dr. Muhammad Ilyas. These decisions have led to resentment and dissatisfaction among those who were overlooked for promotion.

Aftab Tariq, who holds the position of the FDE director (colleges), was made the IMCB F-7/3 principal though three associate professors, including Muhammad Ashar Noman, Javed Iqbal Niazi and Latifur Rehman, were senior to him. Likewise, IMCB I-8/3 got Shahid Mehmood Abbasi as the principal after the FDE ignored his senior associate professors Adnan Jehangir and Nadeem Rafi casting doubt about the fairness of the selection exercise.

Zahid Akbar superseded his senior faculty member, Khumar Gul, to become the principal of IMCB G-15/1. The teachers said it was still not known under what criteria the FDE ignored senior associate professors for appointment as college principals and went for those holding third, seventh, 10th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 68th positions on the seniority list. They insisted that the "selective" approach raised serious questions about the fairness and objectivity of those appointments.

A senior associate professor, who requested anonymity, said, "I'm stressed out for being forced to work under a staff member, who is junior to me but is given the charge of a senior post by the department." The teachers said authorities were approached over that discrimination against senior associate professors but to no avail.

They said those appointment irregularities let down senior teachers and hit student learning and exam performances. The teachers urged the new education minister to intervene to fix the issue and ensure strict adherence to the seniority principle for future appointment of principals to build institutional efficiency and boost the morale of the teaching community.