HEC chief: Govt asked to appoint someone at the earliest

New committee picking names, says education secretary.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday expressed concern over the non-appointment of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chief and asked the education secretary to convey the court’s concerns to the prime minister and submit a report on April 30.

When IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui took up the matter on Monday, Education Secretary Muhammad Ashan Raja informed the court that earlier, a committee had forwarded a shortlist of three people to the premier, but the committee was dissolved soon after.

He said that a new committee headed by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has been constituted.

“The new committee has started picking names,” he said. Justice Siddiqui, however, expressed his annoyance by saying that the court had ordered it to fill the post by February 12, but it was still lying vacant.

“The post is of great important and it would be best if the government appointed a new chief immediately,” observed Justice Siddiqui.

The court gave the observation on a public interest petition filed last year by former additional district and sessions judge Khawaja Aurangzeb.



The counsel for the petitioner, Barrister Afzal Hussain, informed the court that the post was still lying vacant despite the court’s order. “Despite the lapse of eight months, the government has failed to appoint the HEC chief,” he said.

The court noted that it seems the government wanted to appoint a “special person” with a specific domicile.

After the expiry of former HEC chief Javaid Laghari’s term on August 26, 2013, the government appointed Peshawar University of Engineering and Technology Vice Chancellor Imtiaz Hussain Gilani as acting chief of the regulatory body. Gilani’s term ended on February 12, 2014, but the prime minister extended it till the appointment of a permanent chief.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2014.