Rudderless HEC: PM to pick new chief soon

HEC head to be appointed from among three short-listed names.

ISLAMABAD:

After nearly a year, it looks like the Higher Education Commission (HEC) may finally get a new chief. The premier has invited a cabinet minister, who was also chief of the first selection committee to meet with him and select a new chairperson.

A committee headed by Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal had sent three names for the prime minister’s approval in January. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat told The Express Tribune that it was likely the PM would select a candidate from amongst the three names sent to him.

Iqbal confirmed the development, “The PM has invited me to discuss the three candidates and there is a possibility he might review them before asking Asif to conduct fresh interviews.”

After former HEC chief Javaid Laghari’s term expired last August. On November 12, 2013, the government chose University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar Vice Chancellor Imtiaz Hussain Gilani as an acting chairperson. His tenure ended on February 12, 2014.

A six-member search committee to select a new chief, headed by Iqbal, was announced by the PM in January. It was later pared down to three and the other two members were scholar Dr MB Shami and economist and former State Bank chief Dr Ishrat Husain.

Some 103 applications were received from across the country, from which 21 candidates were shortlisted and 18 were called for an interview by the search committee. On February 11, the committee chose three names, that of HEC Executive Director Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, National Textile University Faisalabad Rector Dr Niaz Ahmad and former Karakoram International University vice chancellor Dr Najma Najam.

The PM had initially rejected all three names a month after they were received and constituted a new committee to hold another round of interviews. According to sources in the education ministry, a vice-chancellor recommended by an MNA was not considered. This was the main reason the PM had ordered fresh selection of candidates. But they said it looked like fresh interviews would not be conducted and the PM would select a candidate from the three names forwarded to him.

Iqbal was asked to suggest other candidates, but he resigned when he learnt he would have to go through the whole process again. The PM constituted a new four-member committee comprising Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid, State Minister for Education Balighur Rehman, Special Adviser to the PM Tariq Fatemi and Principal Secretary to the PM Javed Aslam. Subsequently, Asif was nominated to head the new search committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2014.