Former Federal Minister and founder of Higher Education Commission Dr Attaur Rehman has said that intervention of Prime Minister’s Secretariat in the affairs of HEC and giving a federal secretary charge of Executive Director was illegal.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Dr Attaur Rehman said the 18 member commission under the HEC Act was empowered to appoint all the officers. He said giving additional charge of chief executive to Qamar Zaman Chaudhry was violation of the orders of the Supreme Court.
Rehman said under the HEC Act the prime minister could appoint the chairman of the commission but could not remove him, adding that the Establishment Division had no legal rights to interfere in the affairs of the commission.
He hoped that the PM would find time to look into the affairs of the HEC and intervene to resolve the issues as it takes time to build institutions and these could be destroyed in no time.
He was of the opinion that the politicians were trying to damage the image of the HEC because of the fake degrees issue. He said that 1.8 percent of the GDP was spent on higher education as per decision of the government. He pointed out that development of a country depends on educated manpower.
Rehman disclosed that when he left the Ministry of Information Technology, its budget was Rs 6 billion which has now been brought down to Rs 1 billion.
‘PM’s intervention in HEC affairs is illegal’
