FAPUASA seeks PM’s intervention for merit-based HEC head

ISLAMABAD, Jan 18 (APP):The Federation of All Pakistan University Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA), a representative body of university teachers, has called on the prime minister to form a transparent committee for merit -based appointment of next Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman and university vice chancellors.
According to FAPUASA’s letter to the prime minister the body also recommended not to include irrelevant members to ensure
qualified and professional heads of the institutions.
The tenure of current HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad is going to expire on April 15 for which FAPUASA has expressed its concern in a letter to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and urged him to constitute an apolitical search committee.
The non-stakeholders interference had brought a culture of extension, nepotism and non-transparent appointment of top leadership at HEC and those of vice chancellors, the letter signed by FAPUASA Central President Prof Dr Kaleem ullah Bareach and Islamabad Chapter President Dr Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhry said.
They said the HEC was the supreme body established primarily for funding, overseeing, regulating, and accrediting the higher education institutions in the country.
“With more than Rs 90 billion budget, the HEC plays an important and leading role towards building a knowledge-based economy in Pakistan through quality assurance, development of new institutions and uplift of existing institutions,” they added.
They said since its inception, the HEC had been praised by a number of international higher education observers. The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology had applauded HEC’s reforms in the words: “progress made was breathtaking and has put Pakistan ahead of comparable countries in numerous aspects”.
They said nowadays higher education sector was facing some problems of severe nature, which had damaged its image and progress.
They claimed that working without its governing board since 2015, the HEC had not published its annual report. The Commission had even failed to utilize approximately 50 percent of its development budget, which had deprived the universities of critical infrastructure like labs, faculty blocks and hostels.
Moreover, they alleged, contractual and ad hoc appointments were at rampant in HEC and varsities. Critical and policy decisions were being made by the contractual employees who did not have any stake at all. Such contractual appointments were also violation of the Supreme Court verdicts, they added.
“Four years tenure of the current HEC chairman is going to expire on 15th April 2018 and it is the right time to rescue higher education by appointing the higher education leadership especially the HEC chairman on merit, which is possible only if the appointment is free from political and external intervention,” they said.