HEC may continue in present form
Islamabad, May 02: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finally been saved from devolution through commitment made by President Asif Ali Zardari to the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) during their talks.
According to well-placed sources, among the various demands that the PML-Q put forward before the President, one was to retain the federal role of the HEC, currently put on hold pending the establishment of Commission for Standard Higher Education.
The president, according to the information, has accepted the demand about HEC. He has committed that HEC would continue to work under its present legal status, revealed the source.
It has also been learnt that the president said that the mechanism to retain the federal role of HEC would be decided later on. It is more likely that a committee of legal experts would be constituted to design a mechanism through which HEC could be saved from devolution, he said.
MNA Marvi Memon said that she could not speak about her party s policy and even did not have information about what happened during the talks between the president and leadership of PML-Q.
I am personally convinced that HEC should continue to work with its current independent status and there is no need to constitute any new commission that would work under the Cabinet Division, she said.
PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed in his press conference held sometime back clearly stated that his party opposed the planned devolution of HEC and would resist any move aimed at subjugating the national institution .
HEC Chairperson Dr Javaid Laghari said that he had no clue if the president has accepted this demand of PML-Q. We, however, expect the democratic government to honour the wishes of the people of Pakistan and save HEC from devolution, he said.
He said that now it was not a matter to save HEC from devolution but to let it work in its current status. The point here is to let HEC work in its existing shape and not to introduce some new commission and new legislation in this regard, he added.
Despite repeated attempts by these correspondents presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar was not available for comments.
Earlier, the meeting of Council of Common Interest (CCI) approved the proposal that the federal government would continue to fund the public sector universities till the next NFC award due in 2014.
The sources claimed that during the meeting of CCI the provinces showed their complete inability to run public sector universities at their own thus forcing the federal government to allocate funds for higher education sector in the upcoming federal budget.
Now the federal government would allocate funds for higher education sector in the next annual budget. The finance wing was quite active to get rid of the financial burden of the public sector universities but the provinces were not ready to take up the responsibility that was apparently beyond their financial capacity, the sources said.
It has been learnt reliably that chairperson of Implementation Commission, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, during the meeting of CCI severely criticised HEC and said that it should be devolved to the provinces. Rabbani was of the opinion that HEC was doing propaganda against government by saying that the government is taking revenge for HEC s strict stance in degree verification process, the source revealed.
Islamabad, May 02: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finally been saved from devolution through commitment made by President Asif Ali Zardari to the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) during their talks.
According to well-placed sources, among the various demands that the PML-Q put forward before the President, one was to retain the federal role of the HEC, currently put on hold pending the establishment of Commission for Standard Higher Education.
The president, according to the information, has accepted the demand about HEC. He has committed that HEC would continue to work under its present legal status, revealed the source.
It has also been learnt that the president said that the mechanism to retain the federal role of HEC would be decided later on. It is more likely that a committee of legal experts would be constituted to design a mechanism through which HEC could be saved from devolution, he said.
MNA Marvi Memon said that she could not speak about her party s policy and even did not have information about what happened during the talks between the president and leadership of PML-Q.
I am personally convinced that HEC should continue to work with its current independent status and there is no need to constitute any new commission that would work under the Cabinet Division, she said.
PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed in his press conference held sometime back clearly stated that his party opposed the planned devolution of HEC and would resist any move aimed at subjugating the national institution .
HEC Chairperson Dr Javaid Laghari said that he had no clue if the president has accepted this demand of PML-Q. We, however, expect the democratic government to honour the wishes of the people of Pakistan and save HEC from devolution, he said.
He said that now it was not a matter to save HEC from devolution but to let it work in its current status. The point here is to let HEC work in its existing shape and not to introduce some new commission and new legislation in this regard, he added.
Despite repeated attempts by these correspondents presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar was not available for comments.
Earlier, the meeting of Council of Common Interest (CCI) approved the proposal that the federal government would continue to fund the public sector universities till the next NFC award due in 2014.
The sources claimed that during the meeting of CCI the provinces showed their complete inability to run public sector universities at their own thus forcing the federal government to allocate funds for higher education sector in the upcoming federal budget.
Now the federal government would allocate funds for higher education sector in the next annual budget. The finance wing was quite active to get rid of the financial burden of the public sector universities but the provinces were not ready to take up the responsibility that was apparently beyond their financial capacity, the sources said.
It has been learnt reliably that chairperson of Implementation Commission, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, during the meeting of CCI severely criticised HEC and said that it should be devolved to the provinces. Rabbani was of the opinion that HEC was doing propaganda against government by saying that the government is taking revenge for HEC s strict stance in degree verification process, the source revealed.
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