Government shortlists 21 names for HEC’s top slot

Interviews will be held on Feb 10 and 11; names of three shortlisted candidates to be sent to PM.

ISLAMABAD:

The government has shortlisted 21 names for the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC’s) top slot.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal confirmed to The Express Tribune on Friday that the candidates were shortlisted by two members of a search committee comprising Dr Ishrat Husain and Prof Dr MB Shami.

The Ministry of Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education had sent applications of 103 candidates to the Planning Commission for consideration.

However, Iqbal said several names including the current acting HEC chairperson Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, former HEC chiefs including Javaid Laghari and Dr Attaur Rehman have also been included in the list. He said that interviews of the shortlisted candidates could not be conducted as Dr Hussain was currently out of the country.



“But, let me reaffirm the commitment that the person selected as the HEC chief would be a man of vision and competency,” he said.

Iqbal said that interviews would be conducted on February 10 and 11.

Names of the three shortlisted candidates would be sent to the prime minister for picking a name as he is the controlling authority of the HEC.

Laghari’s four-year term expired on August 27 last year and the post remains vacant since then.

New heads of varsities

Meanwhile, the HEC has sent a proposal to the president to either extend the tenure of Dr Masoom Yasinzai as vice-chancellor of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) or hand over the slot to a senior dean of the university.

His term expired on Friday (Feb 7). The president is the chancellor of the federal universities.

The HEC has also constituted a search committee for the appointment of VCs of the QAU and the Allama Iqbal Open University and Rector of International Islamic University (IIUI).

Yasinzai is also holding additional charge of IIUI acting rector. The term of AIOU Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir Ahmad Sangi will expire in March.

HEC Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said that it would take three to four weeks for making appointments on the three slots.

He said that a meeting would be convened on February 20 to shortlist the names of the candidates. Ahmad said 123 applications have already been received for the slot of QAU vice-chancellor, 154 for AIOU VC and 94 for the slot of IIUI rector.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2014.