Removal of HEC executive director violation of SC’s order: Rehman

Former HEC chairman talks about the troubling situation brewing after controversial recent appointments.

ISLAMABAD:

It seems as if the government is out to destroy all the research and development the Higher Education Commission (HEC) achieved in the past 10 years. 

This was the view of former HEC chairman Dr Attaur Rehman during a press conference about the troubling situation brewing after controversial recent appointments and removals in the Higher Education Commission.

“The appointment of the new executive director by the Establishment Division is an affront and open contempt of the Supreme Court order issued on April 12, 2011. That ruling had quashed the government’s attempt to shred the HEC into pieces as part of the devolution process,” he said.

He was surprised at the government’s willingness to risk facing contempt of the SC, but also remarked that several issues had triggered this action. Among them was “the Rs48 billion annual budget, which has helped uplifting local universities, some of which are now ranked among the top 500 in the world.”

The former HEC chief also suggested there were attempts by politicians and bureaucrats to coerce universities into granting admission to their kith and kin.

The third reason, he said, could be the wrath of a number of legislators incurred by the HEC in pronouncing 51 of their degrees forged, while many more were reluctant to submit their degrees with the Election Commission of Pakistan, most likely fearing they would be caught out as well.



“It is a systematic strategy to destroy the HEC, as the government has already destroyed two key institutions, the National Commission of Nanotechnology and the National Commission on Biotechnology.”

He lamented that the HEC’s universities budget has been slashed by about 50% and the powers of the Executive Director (ED), which were once equitable to a federal secretary, have been stripped.

“Resultantly, students who went to universities in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Sweden, China, Korea, Japan and Turkey on HEC scholarships were forced to beg at mosques just three months before classes were to begin at four of these universities.”

He also pointed out that the establishment of four law universities, one in each province, which had already been approved, was also abandoned. The present government has approved an education policy under which 7% of the Gross Domestic Product was to be spent on education, but “we are allocating only 1.8% on education, placing us among the seven lowest-ranked countries in the world in terms of expenditure on education,” he remarked.

Answering a question about the current tussle, he said the HEC’s 17-member commission has full authority to appoint management pay (MP) scale officers and Naqvi’s third extension is not violation of law. “He is ex-officio so it does not come under the law for MP scale officials as is the case for the Government of Pakistan,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2012.