HEC fails to hold a single meeting in 14 months

ISLAMABAD: Despite getting a hefty allocation of Rs63 billion in the budget 2014-15, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has almost become dysfunctional in the absence of six members and a permanent principal accounting officer.

According to sources, the commission has failed to meet even once during last 14 months, which is a grave violation of the HEC Act 2002. The Act requires at least two meetings of the commission within one financial year.

The documents available with The News also confirmed that after remaining without a permanent chairman for 8 months, now the commission is functioning without its permanent executive director since April 15, 2014, the day when current chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad was appointed.

Dr Mukhtar Ahmad was previously serving as executive director of the commission. However after his elevation as chairman, the post became vacant and a member of the commission Dr Mansoor Akbar Kundi had been holding the acting charge of the position.

According a notification no 5-496/HEC/HRM/2014/6854 issued on June 24, 2014, Dr Mansoor Akbar Kundi has been given another month extension on temporary charge, which means the post will remain vacant for at least three months.

Section 11 (B) of the HEC Act clearly states “the secretariat, headed by an executive director, shall act as the executing wing of the commission and shall be responsible for implementation of all the orders, decisions, directives and policy of the Commission”.

He is also principal accounting officer. Since there is no full-time ED, most of the HEC’s functions have stopped and there will be a serious doubt on the decisions made by the acting ED.

Moreover, the vice chancellors of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and rector of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) could also not be appointed by the commission for the last six months. An advertisement was published in the national dailies on December 15, 2013 for appointments on these posts but no further progress could be made on the issue despite formulation of a search committee by the HEC.

Sources said the commission is itself functioning without its six (out of total 17) members for the last one year.When contacted by The News, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said the commission could not meet to appoint the permanent HEC executive director owing to lack of quorum.

“We need at least nine members to complete the quorum for the commission’s meeting but owing to budget and other engagements some members of the commission were not available,” he said adding that two members of the commission are federal secretaries.

On the issue of non-appointment of VCs and rector of three top universities, he said there were some technical problems which have now been sorted out and a new search committee headed by minister for education and training Balighur Rehman will select the head of these institutions soon.

He said the appointment of six members of commission would also be made as soon as the commission met for the first time under his chairmanship.According to HEC Act 2002, the commission is an autonomous body, which deliberates on issues pertaining to evaluation, improvement and promotion of higher education, research and development and also formulates policies, guiding principles and priorities for higher education institutions.

As per the minutes of the 28th meeting of commission held on April 9, 2013, the commission nominated 29 scholars of eminence for the appointment of its remaining members but no progress could be made on the issue ever since.

Work on Karachi-Lahore Motorway to begin within few months: Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has stated that work on Karachi-Lahore Motorway project would begin within few months, Geo News reported.

The premier was speaking to a delegation of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders and parliamentarians from Sindh, who called on him in Islamabad on Wednesday evening.

PM Nawaz said bringing normalcy to Karachi was top priority the government.

Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Minister of State for Railways Abdul Hakeem Baloch and Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan were also present on the occasion.

4.1pc GDP growth in six months, claims Dar

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has claimed that Pakistan witnessed a GDP growth of 4.1 percent in the first half of the current financial year against 3.4 percent in six months of the last financial year.

However, in the first nine months of the current fiscal, revenue of the country increased to Rs1,574.6 billion against the Rs1,352.3 billion collected during July-March in the last fiscal showing the growth of 16.4 percent.

During the press briefing here on Wednesday, the minister said that budget deficit had come down 3.1 percent (Rs815 billion) in the first nine-month period against 4.6 percent (Rs1,046 billion).

Dar said that remittances had increased by 11.9 percent to $11.58 billion during the nine-month period from $10.35 billion. Exports have increased to $19.11 billion in nine months of the current fiscal year from $18.02 billion in the same periodof the last year, showing the growth of 6.1 percent. Forex reserves have swelled to $11.67 billion.

As far as inflation is concerned, it stood at 8.6 percent during July-March 2013-14 whereas it was at 7.98 percent in the same period of the last financial year. He said that 3,188 companies have been registered with the SECP in the first nine months of the current fiscal against 2,883 companies that got registered in the same period of the last financial year, showing a growth of 10.57 percent.

The growth in large manufacturing scale stood at 6.05 percent as against 2.78 percent in the period under review of the last fiscal year. “We have planned to give a credit line of Rs380 billion to the agriculture sector during the ongoing financial year, which is up by 13.09 percent if compared with Rs336 billion disbursed in last year,” Dar said.

PM, COAS met frequently in four months

ISLAMABAD: No Chief of Army Staff (COAS) has held so many meetings with a prime minister in such a short span of time as General Raheel Sharif has had with Nawaz Sharif in just four months but still meeting of the minds on Pervez Musharraf’s fate is missing.

This is indicative of the fact that though the two Sharifs have met for a number of times, they have not held even a slight discussion on the former general’s future.Both apparently consciously avoided touching this subject for their own reasons and restricted their deliberations to only burning national issues specifically security matters, terrorism and peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

All together, the Sharif duo has met for some half a dozen times since the new army chief took command of the Pakistan Army in November last. Since then, Nawaz Sharif has been abroad on official tours for nearly a month, which means that the prime minister and the COAS have held meetings at least twice a month which is a very good frequency keeping in view the record of the sessions between such position holders in the past.

This regularity, generally speaking, signals the impression that all’s well as the two top guns sit together and positively work to thrash out issues, sharing views on almost all matters that have the potential of marring their relations.

They met in December, January, February and March, and are expected to be under one roof once again four days later on April 19 at the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul passing out parade where the prime minister will be the chief guest. They may hold a session even before that.

Almost every time, the two chiefs met, senior cabinet ministers and other top officials harped on the theme that the government and the army are on the same page on all critical issues. This was always taken as a positive development in a country where they have usually been holding conflicting stands.

Intensive interactions no doubt help remove misgivings and misunderstandings apart from helping formulation of consensus policies. But although the two sides have been frequently meeting, they have not been on the same wavelength and have not developed the desired rapport on the Musharraf saga otherwise General Raheel Sharif would not have deemed it necessary to issue his famous public statement, prompting some elements, who dream of rocking the relations between the two for their ulterior motives, to paint it as a storm.

All the soldiers’ concerns that the general wanted to address through his public remarks could have been discussed with the prime minister and an easy way-out would have been conveniently found to remove them.

Interpretations of the chief’s comment are galore. One most mooted and plausible puts it as a reaction to some statements of two Khawajas, Defence Minister M Asif and Railways Minister Saad Rafique.

Instead of going public, the best option was to point out to the prime minister their “irresponsible attack” that may have demoralised the soldiers fighting on different fronts, and get it stopped

General Raheel Sharif has just started his three-year tenure as the army chief. Never before has any of his predecessors issued such a statement after just first four months of assuming office. Regardless of what other highly placed government functionaries have stated, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan turned out to be more forthcoming, honest and saner when he admitted the row, though temporarily, which he hoped would go not without much difficulty.

The COAS has made it a point to take some other generals including Ashfaque Nadeem, the Chief of General Staff, and Zaheerul Islam, the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in some high-level meetings with the prime minister, who was assisted by his close aides.

Apart from the elaborate contacts the prime minister has had with the army chief, Chaudhry Nisar too has been having comprehensive interactions with the top men of the security establishment including the ISI chief for consultations on the peace talks and other matters.

At no stage has the government gone solo on the question of the dialogue process. It constituted the first committee after talking to the army. Again, it consulted the force when it formed the second body. Thus, there has been no breaking of communication on this critical issue. But still some people, who pose themselves to be speaking on behalf of the security establishment, have been asserting that the army is annoyed over the release of some Taliban prisoners.

However, even if the government has wanted to free any such inmates, it can’t do so because all of them are in the custody of the army. Rebutting this vicious campaign, the interior minister has to say that the 19 Taliban prisoners were set free after consultations with the army.

If Nawaz Sharif indeed needs to rein in some of his ministers from unnecessary haranguing against Musharraf that is taken as criticism on the army, Raheel Sharif is required to hold back those elements in different agencies. Both have equal bigger responsibility to nip the evil of fueling confrontation in the bud. Everyone is well aware that Pakistan’s plate is full of paramount problems and it can’t brook any adventurism.

ECP seeks 6-9 months time for LB polls in Sindh, Punjab

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought more time for holding local bodies (LB) polls in Sindh and Punjab.

The ECP on Tuesday submitted a plea in the Supreme Court (SC) in which it had prayed that 6 to 9 months are required for delimitation of constituencies, therefore, more time is required for holding LB elections in Sindh and Punjab.

The commission said it will take 6 to 9 months for LB polls in both the provinces.