The Sindh government has been forced to delay forming its higher education commission as the Federal government has decided to run the Islamabad-based HEC for another year, Pakistan Today has learnt. The move has been initiated by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in an attempt to lower political temperatures that have been boiling ever since it was announced that the Education Ministry will be devolved to the provinces, sources told Pakistan Today.
A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting chaired by PM Gilani, which decided that the Federal government would run the affairs of the HEC for another year, sources said. The PM’s decision meant that Sindh had to abandon plans to establish a provincial higher education commission. The Sindh government had already constituted a task force to oversee the entire process of devolution of education, tasking it with the responsibility of working out the provincial HEC’s structure, functions and laws.
A summary had also been forwarded to Sindh’s chief minister, recommending the names of former vice-chancellors of public sector universities as well as representatives of the business community.