A certain person, believed to be close to a key minister, is likely to be appointed as new head. PHOTO: HEC.GOV.PK
Call it search for ‘the right man’ or ‘man of choice’, race is on for appointment of the head for Higher Education Commission (HEC) – the body that regulates the university education in the country.
The new selection committee has yet to conduct interviews but speculations are already rife about possible appointment of a particular person, believed to be close to a key minister in the federal cabinet.
The likely name being circulated in the power corridors is a vice-chancellor of a university. It is alleged that the said vice-chancellor gave affiliation to an institution, indirectly run by the minister under private-public partnership in his native city. The minister himself is among the 22 syndicate members of that varsity.
Politicisation in this matter is likely to land the issue once again in courts resulting in further delay in appointment of a permanent chairman of the HEC, which is headless since August last year.
The new selection panel headed by Khawaja Asif – a key aide of PM Nawaz Sharif with the portfolios of water and power and defence ministries – indefinitely postponed interviews of candidates for unknown reasons the other day.
Before the PM notified the new panel, an earlier committee had finalised the search process in February this year and had sent three names to the premier. Prime Minister Nawaz had, however, rejected all of them and asked the then committee head Ahsan Iqbal to re-do the process with the shortlisted candidates.
Eyebrows were raised in the academic circles at the PM’s decision. Iqbal excused himself and a new committee, headed by Khawaja Asif, was notified.
How things developed
After the expiry of the HEC’s former chief Javaid Laghari’s term on August 26, 2013, the government had handpicked Peshawar’s University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Vice-Chancellor Imtiaz Hussain Gilani to act as the HEC’s acting chief, whose tenure ended on February 12, 2014.
The government was under strict instructions from the Islamabad High Court to appoint a permanent head before February 12 and on January 2014 it announced that a six-member panel would determine the right man for this key job.
Three names were dropped, again, for unknown reason and eventually a three-member committee – headed by Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, and including State Bank of Pakistan’s former governor Dr Ishrat Hussain and Dr MB Shami – started its work.
The committee, after going through the credentials of the applicants, initially shortlisted 21 names from among 103 applications. On February 11, Iqbal-led committee chose three names — the incumbent HEC Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, National Textile University Faisalabad’s Rector Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, and Karakoram International University’s former vice-chancellor Dr Najma Najam.
The appointment was to be finalised by February 12. However, all the names were rejected by the PM, who is the controlling authority.
Iqbal was ordered to repeat the process, but he refused and the PM nominated Defence Minister Khawaja Asif as head of the search committee.
Balighur Rehman, one of the members of the committee, rejected the notion of favoritism. “Frankly I do not know anything about somebody wanting PM to appoint his own person,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2014.
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Look at the sincerity of our politicions , they are playing with the future of pakistan and still HEC chairmain is not decided . Afsoooooss pakistan ka kia ho ga
Auditors object to HEC executive director’s salary - Published on 2013-11-19 Government auditors have raised objections over the appointment of Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) executive director (ED), Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, and said the millions paid to him as salary were illegal!
Although the starting pay of MP-I Scale officer is Rs234,000, Mr Mukhtar’s monthly pay was fixed at Rs325,520. Moreover, 20 per cent allowance (Rs 46,800) and another Rs150,000 were included in his salary as ‘other perks and privileges’. Therefore, his total salary reached Rs 522,320 / month!.
So, so! Is this the same guy who was shortlisted to head the poor HEC, tough luck HEC. They won't spare you until they have milked you dry! The loot is on, free for all who are connected, this country has gone to the dogs, no to the wolves, hasn't it?
HEC has morphed into a elephant;its slow and ignores minions ( people from smaller provinces). i, like many others, have experienced how corrupt and inefficient HEC has become. i say hand over the HEC to provinces as promised in 18th amendment. Surely, that wont end the corruption. however, i would prefer horizontal corruption over the centralized one. at least we would have access to the office. and here you make 300 calls to HEC office and no one cares to attend the phone. Devolve HEC now!
@fahim The hec has been led by non-Punjabis all its life.
HEC since long has been plagued by nepotisim and favouritism. People of some provinces are more equal than others in Pakistan.