Turf war: HEC chairman locks horns with new executive director
The turf war between the government and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) took a new turn on Monday. HEC Chairman Dr Javaid Leghari nullified an order by the commission’s new executive director (ED), Maj (retd) Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, maintaining that his appointment itself is illegal.
Zaman trasnferred Dr Mazhar Saeed from the Research and Development Division to the Human Resource Management (HRM) Department in place of Awais Ahmad who was transferred from the HRM to the Human Resource Development (HRD). But the HEC chairman shot down the trasnfer orders.
In a notice sent to the Establishment Division, Dr Laghari maintained that the division does not have the jurisdiction to appoint an ED as under Section-11 (1) of the HEC Act, only the commission reserves that right.
However, the Officers Welfare Association (OWA) and Employees Welfare Association (EWA), which represent around 600 permanent employees of the HEC, have rejected the chairman’s order.
A representative of OWA, requesting anonymity, said the association has decided to uphold the decisions of the new ED and protest against the “illegal order” of the chairman. He maintained that former Executive Director, Dr Sohail Naqvi, had been provided three extensions illegally. He said if the chairman continues to defy the appointment of the new ED and prevents him from performing his duties, the employees will move the Senate Standing Committee on Education.
The tussle started on October 24 when the Establishment Division, in a letter to the HEC chairman, declared all appointments on management position (MP) scales by the commission illegal, adding that the appointing authority in case of MP scales will be the prime minister. The Establishment Division also directed that Qamar Zaman, a BS-22 Secretariat Group officer, be given the additional charge of HEC executive director.
But Leghari, who has time and again criticised the ‘intervention’ of government in HEC’s affairs, maintained that only the 17-member Commission appointed by the PM has the authority to take such decisions.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2012.
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This is Atrocious, This is a problem with Pakistanis, we can’t tolerate it if things are going fine we have to meddle and do something about that and probably bring change for the worse mostly.. One institution that works independently also functioning good but these politicians with their puny brains have to destroy it like the rest of the country and put the future of us students at stake. Sometimes I wonder if these politicians are doing everything in their power to scare the young generation out of the country.
Corrupt politicians want to destroy a properly functioning institution by using evil tactics. Don't everybody knows that HEC is functioning properly ? Why do these politicians want to bring down HEC at the level of PIA, Railway, Steel mills ? Perhaps, we're the worst enemy of ourselves. PPP and its feudal politicians have a long history of politicizing and destructing the properly functioning institutions of Pakistan. What a shame !