Stalled funds: Authorities reluctant to obey PM’s orders in toto
Although the premier gave clear orders to the finance ministry on Friday to immediately release funds to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the finance division agreed to only release Rs2 billion against pending funds of over Rs11 billion.
According to a statement released by the Prime Minister House, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf directed the finance secretary to release the HEC funds with immediate effect as it was a “question of the future of thousands of students who are studying both at home and abroad”.
The prime minister said that complacency will be tolerated in this regard, according to the statement.
HEC Chairman Javed Laghari has termed the release ‘peanuts’, saying it was insufficient to meet the commission’s demands.
The premier’s direction followed his meeting with Minister for Professional & Technical Training Shiekh Waqas Akram, during which the latter expressed his concerns over the stalled HEC funds and the gravity of the situation.
The minister met the prime minister after being briefed by the Federation of All Pakistan University Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA).
Akram informed the prime minister that the staff of 74 public sector universities remained unpaid due to stalled funds. Moreover, he said that due to non-issuance of funds, around 10,000 overseas PhD scholars and graduates would be affected and other overseas projects could also be jeopardised.
An official in the professional and technical training ministry said that following the detailed discussion, Prime Minister Ashraf ordered the finance ministry to immediately release Rs4.6 billion to the HEC.
A total of Rs12 billion were not released during the fiscal year 2011-12 – out of which Rs 6 billion was meant for development and another Rs6 billion for recurring expenditures. For the fiscal year 2012-2013, Rs10 billion less than HEC’s demand were allocated to the commission.
The HEC chairman told The Express Tribune that the finance division verbally conveyed that it would release Rs2billion, which is insufficient to meet the huge demands from different universities.
He added that they were currently facing a shortage of over Rs11billion, out of which Rs4.6billion was for salaries only, which was meant to be released six months ago. The remaining funds would be used in the development sector, Laghari added.
Meanwhile, the FAPUASA formally expressed concern over the delay and non-implementation of Prime Minister Ashraf’s directives. FAPUASA President Kaleemullah Bareach, Vice President Zahid Majeed and all provincial presidents have shared in their statement on Friday that only Rs2billion against Rs11billion was not enough.
They said the PAPUASA would go ahead with their protest if the premier’s directives were not honoured by the finance division soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
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