Staff Report
Islamabad: 150 prominent academics and civil society leaders have written a strongly worded open letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan demanding the withdrawal of the HEC amendment ordinance and restoration of the HEC as an independent national regulatory body.
The government promulgated the HEC (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 on 25 March 2021, through which the tenure of the Chairperson was reduced from 4 to 2 years, the current Chair, Dr. Tariq Banuri, was removed from his position, and HEC was placed under the Federal Ministry of Education.
The signatories of the letter include senior educationists, Vice Chancellors, journalists, former ambassadors, generals and other government officials, parliamentarians, and human rights activists. They include such names as LUMS founder Syed Babar Ali, human rights activists Ms. Hina Jilani, Mr. Harris Khalique and Mr. Karamat Ali, Council of Islamic Ideology Chair Dr. Qibla Ayaz, former VCs Prof. Qasim Jan and Prof. Adil Najam, NCSW Chair Ms. Khawar Mumtaz, journalists Mr Hussain Naqi and Mr. M. Ziauddin, educationists Mr. Shamsh Kassim Lakha, Ms. Shahnaz Wazir Ali and Dr. Ayesha Razzaque, business leader Mr. Farooq Sumar, and former Senators Javed Jabbar and Farhat Ullah Babar, among many others.
The signatories expressed serious concerns that major decisions that affect the lives of millions of students were taken hastily and secretly by the Federal Government without consulting the parliament, the Council of Common Interests, or the Higher Education Commission. The relegation of the status of the HEC from an independent national body, with representation from all provinces, to a subordinate entity of the federal govt, will have implications for inter-provincial relations.
