Devolution or contempt?: Sindh to go ahead with education commission

Sindh govt prepares to table the draft of ‘Sindh Higher Education Commission Act’.


Noman Ahmed December 25, 2012
Sindh govt prepares to table the draft of ‘Sindh Higher Education Commission Act’. PHOTO:FILE

KARACHI: Another storm involving the government and the judiciary is brewing up. As the provincial government mulls tabling the draft of “Sindh Higher Education Commission Act” in the next assembly session, the proponents of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) believe it amounts to contempt of court.

After the 18th Amendment, a number of ministries, education, social welfare and special education, tourism, livestock and dairy, rural development and culture, became provincial subjects. In the case of the HEC, however, its former chairperson Dr Attaur Rehman, ex-senator Azam Khan Swati, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Marvi Memon, Riphah International University Rector Prof. Dr G.A. Miana went to the apex court in April last year, challenging the government’s decision to devolve the HEC.

Marvi Memon

The court ruled in their favour after the Attorney General, Maulvi Anwarul Haq clarified before the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that “the status of HEC shall remain intact unless it is changed through some [further] legislation.”

But with the Sindh government adamant to legislate for a provincial higher education body, the petitioners believe this will be tantamount to contempt of court. “As per the Constitution and the 18th Amendment, the HEC is still a federal subject and provincial assemblies have limited powers to legislate on it,” said Marvi Memon while talking to The Express Tribune.

The draft of the Sindh Higher Education Commission Act nominates the chief minister as the controlling authority of the provincial body which will be administered by a chairperson, said Aftab Inayat, the consultant at Sindh education department.

“The Supreme Court’s order subjects the matter of devolution to legislation and the province is just doing that,” she said. The federal government will bear all costs of the commission and universities until the next National Finance Commission award in 2015.

Marvi Memon, however, disagreed. “If the provincial assemblies step overboard, they will be breaking the constitution and will create unnecessary conflicts within the legislative, judicial and executive branches,” she said.

In another controversy, the establishment division on November 29 appointed Major (retd) Qamaruz Zaman as the new executive director of the HEC, triggering an outcry from commission’s leadership, which termed the appointment an infringement of authority. However, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry nullified the appointment, stating “the establishment should not intervene in any independent body, including the judiciary”.

“The government is not even authorised to appoint an executive director for the HEC as declared by the apex court let alone devolve it,” Rehman, the founding chairperson of the HEC, said while talking to The Express Tribune. Rehman reiterates if the provincial government goes ahead and devolve the HEC, it will be considered as contempt of court.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26th, 2012.

COMMENTS (3)

KH | 11 years ago | Reply @Sindh_voice: and secondly there shouldnt be any Sind Voice, Punjab Voice, Pashton voice or Balochi Voice. There should be only PAKISTAN VOICE. So please cut this out for good. Request to all Pakistanis.
KH | 11 years ago | Reply

@Sindh_voice: Education is and should always be a federal subject, so that same standard can exist in all parts of the country.

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