HEC governing body takes shape after two years

Plagiarism case of the executive director is also on the body’s agenda

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission governing body’s members have finally been approved by the prime minister after two years of delay.

On May 30, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi gave the approval for the governing body before the completion of the government’s term.  The government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz did not pay attention to the appointment of members of the commission.

According to the HEC Ordinance 2002, the board running the HEC consists of 18 members — two federal secretaries, four representatives of the provinces, an executive director, one vice chancellor and 10 nominees of the prime minister.

“The commission shall also submit to the controlling authority after the end of every year a report on the state of higher education and on its activities during that year,” the ordinance states.

The commission had only eight members and 10 had yet to be appointed by the PM before the approval. However, the delay is largely attributed to the objections which have been raised at the names forwarded in this regard.

According to a source in the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, the former PM approved the names as the office was clearing the summaries and pending files.

The commission meetings are held to take policy decisions about higher education in the country, approval of the budget and appointments made and decisions taken by the chairperson.

As per the ordinance, there should be at least two meetings a year but only four have been held since the incumbent government took charge. HEC’s governing body last met in February 2016.

A source in the ministry also revealed that the PM has approved two names from the committee later formed to select the new HEC chief. One of them is the former caretaker minister for health Dr Sania Nishtar and senior professor Faisal Bari from Lahore University of Management Sciences.

The source confirmed that the approval of these names was suggested by the former federal minister Balighur Rehman.

The HEC Executive Director Dr Arshad Ali confirmed to The Express Tribune that the names have been approved by the PM.  He also stated that it was expected that the meeting of the governing body would be held in July.

According to sources in the HEC, it is expected that besides several pending issues of the past two years including approvals of appointments and budgets, the alleged plagiarism case of the ED would also be on the agenda. Another source feared that it might not happen because ED was the one who was preparing the agenda so would prefer to keep it off the table. The ED was recently reported to have plagiarised some research papers and the dossier has reportedly reached the PM house as well.