Defending the provincial government’s planned amendments to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act 2012, senior minister Inayatullah Khan said on Monday that the law is meant to curb the misuse of emergency powers by vice chancellors (VC).
Responding to an adjournment motion raised by PTI lawmaker Haider Ali Khan and ANP’s Syed Jaffer Shah in the provincial assembly, Inayatullah said VCs were misusing powers entrusted to them; under their emergency powers, they hire people on contract and later those jobs are regularised.
“Autonomy should be granted to institutions, not their heads. Universities have turned into the empires of vice chancellors,” stated the senior minister.
However, ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak termed proposed amendments to the existing law mala fide. “Attempts to change the tenure of VCs from four to three years along with other changes are uncalled for and should not be enacted,” said Babak.
Senior minister Inayatullah objected to Babak’s statement saying the latter was jumping to conclusions. According to Inayatullah, the bill had to sail through the legislature and Babak can introduce amendments to the clauses he thinks are wrong.
The house then referred the matter to the relevant committee. The proposed amendments have been a subject of contention between VCs of public universities and the provincial government.
The government had sent the K-P Universities (Amendment) Bill 2014 to Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad and the governor returned it back with the advice that it needed further improvement, stated a handout issued on Monday evening.
“After detailed analysis of the proposed amendments, I advise that a broad-based committee be constituted for the revision of K-P Universities Act 2012,” stated the handout while quoting Governor Mehtab.
Generating power
Meanwhile, the house was told that the government is planning to build 356 micro hydel stations in those areas of the province which are located away from the national grid and do not get electricity.
In response to a query raised by PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurganzeb Nalutha, Minister for Energy and Power Atif Khan said that once completed, the micro-hydel stations will generate 35 megawatts of electricity.
He added the government has identified sites for the construction of the power stations and they will be completed within six to 18 months. However, he did not mention the cost associated with the project.
Privilege motion
Earlier at the start of the session, Nalutha said he would introduce a privilege motion against PTI chief Imran Khan for “blatantly ascribing statements” to him (Nalutha).
According to the PML-N leader, at a public rally Imran Khan quoted him as telling the provincial assembly that K-P police is better than Punjab police. “There can be no bigger lie than this statement. I will term K-P police better than other provincial police when kidnappings for ransom, extortion and other crimes are eliminated,” said Nalutha.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2014.
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