After much censure: HEC commission to meet on Friday

Three scheduled meetings of the body have been postponed since April 2013.


Riazul Haq September 24, 2014

ISLAMABAD: Galvanised into action after being reprimanded by the Senate Standing Committee on Education and Training, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has called its governing body’s meeting on September 26 (Friday).

The Senate body, on Thursday, had questioned multiple delays in holding the HEC’s commission meeting.

The governing board running the HEC consists of 18 members: two federal secretaries, four representatives of the provinces, an executive director, one vice chancellor and 10 nominees of the prime minister.

Meetings of the HEC’s commission or governing body are held to take policy decisions about higher education in the country. The 18-member commission is currently short of nine members.

The last time the HEC governing body met was in April 2013. It has since postponed three scheduled meetings, the latest of which was supposed to be held on April 7, 2014.

Since then, the higher education body has been criticised for not holding the meeting and appointing officers of grade 20 and above on deputation without approval of the commission.

The HEC executive director had told the Senate committee last week that unavailability of members was the reason behind the continuous delays.

The committee’s chairperson Senator Abdul Nabi Bangash had directed the HEC to hold a meeting by October and send the minutes to the subcommittee.

Currently, there are nine members of the commission who fulfill the quorum to hold a meeting. The Senate body had also termed the delays a deliberate effort by the HEC to avoid the commission’s oversight and continue taking decisions on its own.

Nominations for the remaining members of the commission have been already sent to the prime minister for approval while a request for the appointment of a vice chancellor to the body was forwarded last week.

HEC Chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said the meeting will discuss formation of a national testing service body following the order of the Lahore High Court earlier this year. The court had ordered HEC to establish a body of its own to conduct admissions and scholarship tests in the higher education sector.

“Apart from this, the establishment of provincial higher education commissions and HEC’s role at the federal level are also on the discussion agenda,” said the chairman. Ahmed said they would also approve the budget of the new fiscal year for varsities, adding the HEC has decided to hold the body’s meeting on a monthly basis.

Sources at HEC said two meetings are scheduled to be held before Eid.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2014.

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