Zero dark ’13: Penniless HEC needs its funding, now

The government had pledged Rs15.8 billion to the HEC in the 2012-13, so far Rs7.9 billion has been provided.

ISLAMABAD:

Zero. That is the grand total of the development funds the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has received for the third quarter of the current fiscal year.

The government had pledged Rs15.8 billion to the HEC in the 2012-13 budget for development grants, which are used to provide for scholarships, infrastructure development and other development projects at public sector universities as well as the salaries of project staff.

So far, Rs7.9 billion has been provided, with the last payment — Rs4.73 billion — made in December 2012.

Since then, the HEC is looking toward the Finance Division for the release of around Rs3 billion for the third quarter, HEC Chairperson Javaid Laghari told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

The Finance Ministry had assured the HEC and varsity vice chancellors at a February 21 meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Education and Trainings that the development funds will be released by March 1.

The date has come and passed. But the development funds, which help finance the studies of around 8,000 scholars in Pakistan and abroad, have not arrived.



The problem does not end here.

The HEC is also awaiting recurring funds to the tune of another Rs3 billion for the third quarter, Leghari said.

The recurring funds cover the salaries of universities’ staff and research grants. The HEC is supposed to receive Rs32.7 billion altogether under the recurring subhead by June. But Laghari said the HEC has not received the recurring funds for February.

This has affected the provision of salaries to the 20,000-strong teaching faculty of public universities around the country.

Nasir Jamal Khattak, vice chancellor of Kohat University, said if the recurring funds are not released for another two months, Kohat University will face the same fate as Karachi University — which does not have the money to pay its staff.

Balochistan University is also in dire straits.

“We have been managing staff salaries on internal borrowing for the past two to three months, but this month we don’t have any money to pay teachers,” the university’s vice chancellor Rasul Baksh Raisani said.

He said the university used to receive the annual allocation in quarterly installments of 20 to 30 per cent, but since January, the HEC has changed the payment procedure to a monthly allocation of 10 per cent due to paucity of funds.

The monthly Rs40 million Balochistan University received in February for its January expenses is only half of the amount required to pay its staff, Raisani said.

He said the university, which has 6,000 on-campus students, has 790 teaching positions, but more than 200 of the positions are currently vacant. Raisani said he was afraid he would have to lay off some teachers, or worse, close the university if the funds do not arrive soon.

“If the government does not want the universities to shut down, it should release the funds,” Khattak said. “If there is a way to improve our country’s condition, it is through education. Without education, we are going to get worse and worse.”

HEC spokesperson Murtaza Noor said the commission has been regularly forwarding requests and complaints received from universities to the finance ministry so that the ministry takes note of the problems universities are facing.

HEC officials are expected to meet with the Finance Division this week to find a way to resolve the funding issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2013.