The Higher Education Commission (HEC), an institution that we had come to look at with pride and joy for making our dreams of attaining quality education and research trends possible in Pakistan, is being robbed right in front of our eyes. As if the prevailing degradation of our primary and secondary education system was not enough, the only hope of research, which is still in its infancy in Pakistan, is being aborted.
The only gain this move is viable to achieve is to promote inequality between the provinces that had hitherto never uttered a single complaint against the HEC as students from all over the country have succeeded in attaining need-based and merit-based scholarships both for national and international universities of high rankings.
The importance of research can be observed from the fact that it is inextricably linked with the social and economic development of a country. And the proposed move to devolve the commission to the level of the provinces will surely prove counterproductive in both the short and long term.
In the backdrop of the prevalent social and economic degradation, how can anyone justify this brainless act of devolving the HEC to take the nation further down the evolutionary ladder? Why do we tolerate the impositions of regulations that are a stark violation of our citizenship rights?
Sooner or later, the security situation is bound to reverse but the lack of education can lead us to a colossal disaster that our blindfolded leaders fail to see.
HABIBA YOUNIS
Rawalpindi
