6% increase: HEC gets Rs109b allocation

ISLAMABAD: The government has announced a mere six per cent increase in the development budget for the higher education sector for the incoming fiscal year of 2018-19.

The budget documents state that the government has allocated Rs72 billion for the higher education sector.

On the development side, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) got Rs37.38 billion, up from Rs35 billion allocated last year.



Cumulatively, the government allocated Rs109 billion.

This is in stark contrast to figures thrown about by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on the floor of the house.

“We are enhancing the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocations for HEC to Rs57 billion,” he had claimed during his budget speech.

The government has proposed several ambitious new projects for the higher education sector of the country which are mostly a list of all the projects which the commission had failed to secure approval of during the outgoing fiscal year.

New projects listed in the budget include the Prime Minister University Olympics worth Rs0.1 billion; Pak-Russia knowledge platform of Rs0.1 billion; Pakistan Academy of Social Sciences for Rs0.1 billion.



Other important projects include the National Centre for Nanotechnology; establishment of Islamic Thought and Understanding; new universities in Chitral, Khushahb, Murree and Sahiwal.

Similarly, other programmes include the establishment of an institute of Sufism and Mysticism, establishment of a National Centre for Human Nutrition, establishment of inter-faith harmony and cooperation of civilization at Kartarpur among several other new and ongoing projects.

While the government has been quick to claim credit for the highest-ever allocation for the higher education sector over the past five years, it has failed to actually release the full amount of the allocated sum.

Over the past two fiscal years, the overall development budget of has been slashed by 50 per cent.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2018.