The Establishment Division (ED) in-tandem with the PM Secretariat is gunning to grab political control over the Higher Education Commission (HEC), arguably the only government entity that has been a successful service deliverer with a little or no incidence of corrupt practices.
HEC is just too sweet a fruit to be left unplucked. The Commission has an annual budget of Rs48 billion, covering 72 public sector universities with more than 100,000 employees. The Commission controls development projects worth more than Rs200 billion and directly manages 14,000 scholarships.
Additionally, the HEC is currently implementing a hefty $300 million World Bank Tertiary Education Support Programme after successfully implementing a $100 million Higher Education Support Programme.
In a recent World Bank document titled ‘Implementation Completion and Results Report’ the Bank has rated the HEC as ‘highly satisfactory’, a rating that has rarely been given to any Government of Pakistan implementing agency.
How can our political warlords leave a treasure like that beyond the reach of their political manoeuverings?The tussle over political control of HEC’s resources has been going on for quite a while. On April 13, 2011, the Supreme Court (SC) passed an order that the Government of Pakistan should not act in violation of HEC Ordinance 2002 and that HEC would continue to function as before. Under Section 11 of the HEC Act, “The Commission shall appoint an Executive Director in the manner prescribed who shall unless earlier removed on any of the grounds specified in sub-section (6) of section 6, shall hold office for four years and shall be responsible for various activities of the Commission.”
Under Section 12 of the HEC Act the Commission is empowered to appoint officers, servants and advisers in the HEC and also “to make rules of recruitment of its employees.” For the record, all appointments to the HEC have been made by the Commission since the very inception of the HEC.
On November 29, the Establishment Division actually launched its coup by giving marching orders to Major (R) Qamar Zaman, a BS-22 officer of Secretariat Group, to take over “charge of the post of the Executive Director, Higher Education Commission, with immediate effect and until further orders.” On the face of it, the Establishment Division’s order does not hold ground as the appointment is the exclusive prerogative of the Commission.
To be certain, politicisation of the HEC is bound to make it into another PIA, ‘great people to fly with’ or another Tezgam Express that left Karachi last Friday but is yet to arrive anywhere.