KARACHI:
With the passage of time, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan — initially formulated as a funding authority meant to facilitate and promote higher education — has purportedly become a controlling authority challenging the autonomy of institutions of higher education. This self-authority can be challenged in the court of law so far as provision of funds and use of resources are concerned. However, without going into a legal debate, let us try to highlight an illogical or rather hilarious feature of this authority, namely the attestation of academic credentials.
Lately, the HEC has started to attest degrees and diplomas awarded by chartered universities in the public and private sector. It seems as if they are running a rather expensive post office and simply putting stamps on already attested documents. Furthermore, the HEC claims that “fake degrees and all other original educational documents would be confiscated and handed over to FIA for further investigation and disposal as per law” if found to be unverified. Now, when a document is not verified by the parent institution, would anyone be foolish enough to send their document to HEC so that it could get confiscated? The procedure is self-explanatory and describes the role of HEC as a money collecting agency.
It is worth mentioning that the HEC charges significantly higher fee for this otherwise useless and time-consuming exercise as compared to that charged by the parent institution. Those applying for immigration or seeking admission to foreign universities are bound to have the attestation from HEC, thanks to the courtesy of concerned authorities who have made it compulsory. It ought to be further stressed that before such practices, people would easily get admission to foreign universities.
Dr Intikhab Ulfat
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, February 14th, 2021.
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