Face saving: NUML’s reply to HEC self-contradictory

The confusion leads back to the varsity’s creation during Musharraf’s regime.

ISLAMABAD:

Even though its ordinance has not been approved by the Senate, the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) continues to function.

After the previous ordinance lapsed in June 2011, instead of clarifying its legal status, the varsity, being run under an ordinance promulgated in 2000 by its board of governors, informed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) that it was awaiting the approval of its amendment bill.

Taking notice of a news story published in The Express Tribune, the Prime Minister’s Office directed the HEC to submit its views regarding the story within three days. The confusion dates back to the time it was set up. At the time it was not clear if the university was an army-run facility or a public sector institution because the then head of the board, Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf was both the army chief and the country’s chief executive.

According to the set precedent, the president is the designated chancellor of universities in the federal capital  and NUML’s ordinance does not mention a chairman of a board of governors anywhere. The failure of the university’s board to meet since 2008 is also a violation of the ordinance, which states it shall hold meetings at least twice a year.

A parliamentary panel had unanimously opposed the idea of army officials’ involvement in areas outside their constitutional domain and had recommended that then president Asif Zardari retain the administrative role of the university’s chancellor. A bill to appoint the chief of army staff (COAS) as the chairman in March 2011 was strongly opposed by then-opposition members Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Abid Sher Ali in the National Assembly.

In their reply, NUML officials stated that the lower house of parliament passed the bill in October 2011, following which, it was presented in the upper house on November 4, 2011. It was later referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Education.

Further ahead, the letter becomes increasingly ambiguous. It states that the university had been approaching Senate Standing Committee on Education Chairperson Senator Kulsum Perveen for a meeting at the earliest. Ironically, Perveen has never chaired the panel on education.

NUML Public Relations Officer Aamir Saleem said that they were trying to get the ordinance passed from Senate. Answering a question about the current status of the ordinance, he said they had contacted Senator Abdul Nabi Bangash, the head of the current Senate body on education. Surprisingly, the senator denied the varsity official’s claim, saying he had not been contacted even a single time during his year and a half tenure.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2013.