Re: Higher Education Commission
I think one of his gripes was that "useless" NMR machines were imported. But as fauzia wahab proudly stated on faisal qureshi's program six months back that "so what if our base is illiterate?".
Re: Higher Education Commission
^ Are you talking about Hoodbhoy? Now I dont know how true this is but as far as I know Hoodbhoy's gripe was not being included in any decision making educational machinery by the Govt (rather lucrative opportunity) so he pretty much opposed anything Dr. Atta did, which formulated the basis of what HEC stood for in the last decade or so. This includes training a foriegn faculty who would go for their masters/PhDs abroad and come back to teach in Pakistan for a few years atleast.
Re: Higher Education Commission
Atta-ur-Rehman seems a bit dodgy. He’d been pontificating on HAARP for which he was rightly bashed (this and this). A subject suitable for investigations byJesse Ventura… not a Cambridge qualified scientist.
Re: Higher Education Commission
Did he spent money on it when he was part of HEC? This is like picking straws.
Re: Higher Education Commission
Good read.
Re: Higher Education Commission
Dr Atta-ur-Rehman was the absolutely right man for the job -- no two opinions on that. In the last decade, I've personally witnessed many, many deserving Pakistani students getting scholarships courtesy HEC to world class schools which never happened before as all foreign scholarships went either unclaimed or were 'sold' to the highest bidder. To dissolve the HEC is scandalous. This is a government of illiterate, feudal minded corrupt crooks and it's time is up -- and by government I mean both PPP as well as PML-N.
Re: Higher Education Commission
Atta-ur-Rehman seems a bit dodgy.
His comments on HAARP make him "dodgy"? What about all his achievements?
The person "dodgy" here is actually Pervez Hoodbhoy, in my opinion. The only thing he can do is criticize.
Is this why you oppose HEC? Because it was the brain child of Dr Atta?
It seems to be the case to me, and it is strange that you would oppose HEC the institution just because you don't like Dr Atta the person.
Dr Atta did wonders. And there would always be some people who allege wrongdoings on people of such caliber for various reasons and personal/political grudges.
Coming back to the topic of HEC. Why is it that only PPP is supporting dissolution of HEC, while all other organizations in Pakistan are opposing this move? This includes PMLN, Imran Khan, JI, MQM, ANP, all university vice chancellors, etc.
And has PPP given any valid and logical reason of this decision?
The only reason HEC is being dissolved is political. These feudals were pis*ed because HEC would not accept any pressure on degree verification of people's representatives.
Dissolving HEC is nothing but madness.
Re: Higher Education Commission
His comments on HAARP make him "dodgy"? What about all his achievements? The person "dodgy" here is actually Pervez Hoodbhoy, in my opinion. The only thing he can do is criticize.
Is this why you oppose HEC? Because it was the brain child of Dr Atta? It seems to be the case to me, and it is strange that you would oppose HEC the institution just because you don't like Dr Atta the person.
Dr Atta did wonders. And there would always be some people who allege wrongdoings on people of such caliber for various reasons and personal/political grudges.
Coming back to the topic of HEC. Why is it that only PPP is supporting dissolution of HEC, while all other organizations in Pakistan are opposing this move? This includes PMLN, Imran Khan, JI, MQM, ANP, all university vice chancellors, etc. And has PPP given any valid and logical reason of this decision?
The only reason HEC is being dissolved is political. These feudals were pis*ed because HEC would not accept any pressure on degree verification of people's representatives.
Dissolving HEC is nothing but madness.
I agree totally, his scientific papers should not be used to judge his outstanding HEC performance.
Re: Higher Education Commission
^ His scientific papers show his outstanding achievements.
Re: Higher Education Commission
His comments on HAARP make him "dodgy"? What about all his achievements? The person "dodgy" here is actually Pervez Hoodbhoy, in my opinion. The only thing he can do is criticize.
Is this why you oppose HEC? Because it was the brain child of Dr Atta? It seems to be the case to me, and it is strange that you would oppose HEC the institution just because you don't like Dr Atta the person.
Dr Atta did wonders. And there would always be some people who allege wrongdoings on people of such caliber for various reasons and personal/political grudges.
Coming back to the topic of HEC. Why is it that only PPP is supporting dissolution of HEC, while all other organizations in Pakistan are opposing this move? This includes PMLN, Imran Khan, JI, MQM, ANP, all university vice chancellors, etc. And has PPP given any valid and logical reason of this decision?
The only reason HEC is being dissolved is political. These feudals were pis*ed because HEC would not accept any pressure on degree verification of people's representatives.
Dissolving HEC is nothing but madness.
Ofcourse I dont oppose HEC because of Atta ur Rehman. Even Pervez Hoodhboy doesnt support the dissolution of HEC despite criticizing Atta ur Rehman. I've already given my reasons for why Im not too opposed to discontinuing HEC, and none of my arguments focused on Atta ur Rehman. Someone mentioned these Atta ur Rehman and Hoodhboy, I recollected Atta ur Rehman's absolutely assinine article on HAARP and Hoodhbhoy's righteous destruction of Atta ur Rehman for publishing such a stupid article in a national newspaper. It's offtopic. On topic, Hoodhbhoy considers HEC a badly run badly concieved organization that needed a lot of reform, but nevertheless should not have been dissolved.
Re: Higher Education Commission
ravage:
[quote]
I've already given my reasons for why Im not too opposed to discontinuing HEC
[/quote]
One of those reasons was govt sponsoring of PhDs, and Raza Rabbani says that this program will continue.
So there goes that argument as well.
As far as HEC and Hoodbhoy's claim of it being badly run, he is on one side and all other academic people and scientists are on other.
jaane na jaane gul hi na jaane, baagh to sara jane he
Re: Higher Education Commission
Hoodboy's analysis is weak and biased. He has criticized the HEC heavily, even the decade long foreign PhD program abroad, which was a great success. While he has every right to criticize Dr. Atta's paper/analysis on HARP, involving the HEC and bringing up flaws with that analysis just shows ulterior motives.
I too found the paper on HARP somewhat hard to believe, but then again, you never know, just when I heard about his paper Hilary Clinton apologized and acknowledged that the US was testing STDs on Guatemalans at one time. What's funny is that most people were calling that a conspiracy theory lol.
Re: Higher Education Commission
A humble request to all Pakistanis…
Message from Dr. Atta ur Rahman to Students of PAKISTAN
Must Watch Video message to All Pakistanis students and parents to save Pakistan future…Join us in Taleem March…we need hands in hands to save Pakistan…
Dear Colleagues
In a shocking move, the present government approved the shredding of the Higher Education Commission into pieces and handing the functions to the provinces. The Cabinet formally approved this last week.
This was illegal as HEC was a Federal Regulatory Authority and protected under the 18th amendment of the Constitution like other Federal Regulatory Authorities . It was also completely autonomous, and reported directly to the Prime Minister. However it was treated as if it was a part of the Ministry of Education, and since the Ministry of Education was being devolved, so this was too. HEC had developed many enemies when I was its Chairman as I was determined to strictly follow merit and not compromise on principles. Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director, continued these policies, after I resigned, as did the new Chairman Dr. Javaid Laghari. This annoyed many Parliamentarians, specially on the matter of forged degrees as HEC refused to testify them as genuine.
This is disastrous for the future of Pakistan as it will lead to horrendous problems. it will lead to multiplicity of standards and cause the same chaotic situation that exists in our schools. It will also lead to massive corruption as the provincial governments will now be able to exert direct pressures to appoint their cronies at key positions in universities. Greedy politicians have their eyes on university lands worth hundreds of billions of rupees and these can be swallowed after appointment of their own persons at key positions. Universities that are favourites will be better funded and the formula-based funding evolved by HEC will vanish. The $ 300 million committed by the World Bank and $ 250 million agreed to by US AID will also no longer be available as these were linked to the status of HEC not being changed. The written commitment of the Ministry of Finance with the World Bank to give sizeable increases in funding to HEC, resulting in doubling of its recurring and development budgets over the next 3 years will also now no longer be honoured as funding will now be a provincial responsibility except for the few Federal Universities. Most importantly, the national focus to train manpower in key areas of national importance, in harmony with the long term development plans, will be replaced by a fragmented approach.
I recently held a Press Conference in Islamabad on the platform of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (of which I am now President) calling upon the government to reverse this decision to shred HEC. I also discussed the matter with Dr. A.Q.Khan who wrote an article for The News. This was published (as views expressed by him) in The News (Islamabad edition) 2 days ago and in the Karachi edition yesterday.
I have also written an article which is attached. It should be published in a national newspaper within a couple of days.
I would like each of you to take a strong stand on the matter and write articles in national newspapers urging the government to reverse this decision.. We cannot be bystanders as the HEC is shredded into pieces. This was one sector that was working well, six years of my life went in into building this vibrant institution as its founding Chairman. The work of HEC drew much international praise. Alas it has now been destroyed.
Will you act?
Kind regards
Atta
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS
NI,HI,SI,TI, UNESCO Science Laureate
for HEC issue details visit here http://defendinghec.blogspot.com/ , http://www.defendinghec.com/