Better late than never

HEC should meet twice a year to clear regular business but has met four times in the entire tenure of PML-N government

Nobody can accuse the interim government of sitting on its hands and doing nothing, and its most recent good-housekeeping activity concerns the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the approval of two members of its governing body — two years after the posts should have been filled. The outgoing dispensation was never particularly concerned with the details when it came to education, and there was much shilly-shallying regarding the filling of the two posts causing a logjam in the HEC decision-making processes that is going to take time to clear.

To be scrupulously fair outgoing PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi gave approval for two names bringing to 10 the nominees of the PM which are now ratified. This may seem to be a bureaucratic nicety, but the HEC has been stalled in a number of respects. It meets to discuss and approves policy regarding higher education, approval of a range of linked budgets and appointments to senior positions. Much of this has been in abeyance. The HEC should meet twice a year to clear regular business but has met four times in the entire tenure of the PML-N government and has not met at all since February 2016.

A further impediment to the smooth running of the HEC is that its Executive Director (ED) has been accused of plagiarism; and the matter is supposedly to be discussed at the next meeting in July which is to be chaired by none other than the ED who is supposedly a plagiarist. The dossier detailing these has reportedly reached the attention of the interim PM.

None of this bodes well for the future of higher education in Pakistan. National bodies of higher education have a troubled history in many cases, and political activity is banished from campuses, some of which are also plagued by sectarian strife. To have the lead regulatory body for higher education in disarray at a time of political flux is inconvenient to say the least. Let us hope that order can be restored.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2018.

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