No progress yet: CCI yet to decide on HEC devolution

PM Abbasi says the issue needs to be reviewed thoroughly

ISLAMABAD: Even after countless meetings with provinces over the last three years, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) has yet to decide on the devolution of Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and other senior officials, during the latest CCI meeting on Friday, decided that the issue of devolution should be reviewed again and needed to be worked out thoroughly.

“Look at the multiple education boards in the country... the matter of HEC should not meet the fate these boards had met, as it has impacted the quality of education,” a source quoted the PM as telling the participants of the meeting.



It was not the first time the CCI issued directives for a review of the issue that has become a bone of contention among the HECs at the Centre and in Sindh and Punjab. The CCI, during several past meetings, had been postponing the issue for a lack of consensus among provinces.

The issue has also been raised in both houses of parliament and standing committees, besides being a subject of academic discussion in the wake of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

When the issue first reached the CCI, a sub-committee led by the former minister for planning and development, Ahsan Iqbal, was formed to resolve it amicably.

In the Friday’s meeting, the minister presented the findings of the sub-committee and stated that role of the Federal HEC could not be ruled out in the current scenario, and ‘going solo’ is not in favour of the country.



Iqbal also said that education in Sindh was already in tatters to which Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah commented that he was a graduate of the system and it was not in such a bad shape.

PM Abbasi emphasised that there was a need for the provinces to standardise and improve the infrastructure of the educational institutions, according to a press release issued by the PM House on Friday.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was directed to continue heading the sub-committee and hold meetings to bring consensus on the issue.