SC suspends Qamar Zaman’s appointment as HEC executive director

The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the appointment of Qamaruz Zaman as the executive director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

According to a private TV channel, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which was hearing a petition in this regard, suspended the prime minister’s directives on the appointment of the HEC ED.

The bench noted prima facie that the prime minister had no authority to appoint the executive director of the HEC. It ordered that a fresh appointment be made to this post on the basis of merit.

Earlier the HEC chairman in his submission before the SC said he was appointed chairman by the controlling authority of the HEC, the prime minister of Pakistan, three years ago, on a four-year tenure per the HEC Act.

He said in 10 years since the establishment of the HEC, the commission had quadrupled enrollment in universities, increased the number of research publications by a factor of eight, produced more PhDs than in the first 55 years since independence of Pakistan, and recorded the second largest increase in research publications worldwide. “Today the HEC is one of the shining stars in Pakistan and the developing world. All this was possible due to the autonomy of the HEC and it being led by qualified individuals,” he said.

Leghari said in the last three years, the HEC had to face numerous challenges, but “we aced them boldly despite threats to me and my immediate family”.

“These challenges included, among others, verification of parliamentarian degrees, which we successfully completed, proposed devolution of the HEC after the 18th Amendment, which was set aside by the Honorable Supreme Court, and which had the support of over a million youth, and a drastic cut in funding which put many of our scholars in foreign countries begging in front of mosques.”

The HEC chairman said in each of these cases, “we fought for the autonomy of the HEC, which is protected in the HEC Act, and with the support of the nation and the Courts, won”.

He said the most recent onslaught against the HEC was to place it under the administrative and financial control of the Ministry of Education and Training, first through a notification issued by the ministry, which was challenged in the Sindh High Court, and set aside, and now more recently, through a notification issued by the Establishment Division, at the directives of the prime minister, to appoint Ministry of Education and Training Secretary Zaman acting executive director (ED), who is the CEO and the principal accounting officer of the HEC. This appointment is a violation of the HEC Act, he argued.

The chairman elaborated that per the HEC Act, the ED can only be appointed by the commission, whose affairs are governed by an 18-member board. “As was decided by the HEC Board on August 27 and again in a special meeting on November 8, the powers to appoint the ED only lie with the commission. These decisions were reinforced again in the HEC Board meeting of December 14. He and all offices of the HEC Secretariat are bound by the law to implement the decisions of the Board as per HEC Act.

He said since the assumption of charge on his own by Zaman as acting Acting Director, which the commission does not recognise, the situation at the HEC had become very tense and ugly. “Some of the staff have been instigated by unknown forces to rebel against the decision of the HEC Board, and are harassing other staff to accept his position, and the situation has become violent. Certain staff members have taken a position that the prime minister, not the commission, has the powers to appoint the ED, and therefore the authority of Zaman be recognised.”

Leghari said to enforce the authority of Zaman as the acting ED, some of the staff had blocked HEC ED Dr Sohail Naqvi from attending office. “They blocked the entry of about a dozen vice chancellors from entering the HEC premises and meeting the chairman last Friday,” he said, adding that they tried to stop the commission members from attending the board meeting on December 14.

The chairman said the HEC Board had again decided that, “The Higher Education Commission stands by the decision regarding the appointment of Executive Director in its earlier meetings held on 27 August and reaffirmed in the Special Meeting of the Commission held on November 8”.

Leghari pleaded before the Supreme Court that the autonomy of the HEC be recognised and restored, appointment of the acting executive director by the Establishment Division be declared null and void, and police protection be provided to him and his family so that he could perform his duties diligently.