It would do well to recall that the devolution started after HEC declined to validate the fake degrees of many MNAs.
ISLAMABAD: In your paper of April 13, a report quotes the PPP’s Taj Haider as saying the following in support of the dissolution of the HEC: “Dictatorships and their sycophants always prefer centralisation under vague and false arguments that the provinces cannot manage their affairs”. This is typical political obfuscation by mixing issues. By his argument, then, the national army should also be ‘devolved’ to the provincial level, and the National Assembly should be abolished since the provinces have parliaments already. This argument could even be extended to the government.
The question is: What is to be devolved and what can be managed by the provinces? The track record of managing education at a lower level by the provinces can hardly begin to justify the claim that they are competent to take on higher education. It would do well to recall that the move for devolution started after the HEC declined to validate the fake degrees of many MNAs.
Asghar Qadir
Centre for Advanced Mathematics & Physics
National University of Sciences & Technology
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2011.
