NUML in limbo

All is not well at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), despite assertions by its administration to the contrary. The ordinance under which it is supposed to be administered and mandated lapsed in 2011, and the promulgation of a new ordinance is still pending approval from the senate. The university is being run via an ordinance promulgated in 2000 by the then board of governors (BoG). The issue appears to be whether the university is under civilian or military control. When the last ordinance expired, President Asif Ali Zardari attempted to get passed a new ordinance naming the chief of army staff or his nominee as chairman of the BoG; a move that found no favour with the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education, assorted politicians and the former executive director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Up until that point the president was the designated chancellor of all universities in the federal capital, with governors taking that role in the provinces.

The standing committee had unanimously recommended that the military should not be involved in areas outside constitutional domain -— and the chairmanship of the BoG of a premier national institution of higher education clearly was. The ambiguity around ‘who runs NUML’ goes back to its foundation under General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who at the outset was the head of the BoG, and it is of concern to note that the BoG has not met since 2008, which is in violation of the foundation ordinance that requires it to meet twice a year. There is no reason why NUML should come under a military purview and the accident of history that saw its foundation under a military dictator is no justification for the continuance of a military hand on the academic tiller — indeed quite the reverse. It is high time this anomalous situation was resolved and the vestiges of military rule swept away.


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