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.
The Minister must go to court to get remedy or step down from his post.
The honourable Supreme Court has already given its verdict preventing the government from interfering in the HEC matters.
SC should take suo moto notice ; the smouldering HEC crisis surely is far worse than a pillion riding or perhaps I have got my priorities wrong.
They are all dictators; be it politicians, academician or civil servants; HEC top brass cannot believe that someone as humble as a prime minister dared to challenge the posting of an ED third time? Was there no-one competent enough to take this post in the whole country? If my memory recalls correctly Naqvi was apparently stating that he did not want even the 2nd term! And he had offers from UNESCO or World Bank etc! Why the hell he is sticking as a disgraced person?
What you expect from a corrupt govt. Most of the top politician are illiterate and corrupt. Due to fake degree issue they want to control the HEC.
Comments are closed.