Summary NA Committee said HEC should not issue charter to any university until it met all legal requirements
ISLAMABAD (APP) – National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training on Thursday directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to fully evaluate the credentials of a university, prior to issuance of the charter.
The NA Committee said the HEC should not issue the charter to any university until it met all legal requirements and recommended that HEC will have to strictly ensure the implementation of its rules while opening of a new university.
It directed HEC to present the details of those universities which were not fulfilling the legal requirements of the higher educational authority in next meeting.
The Charter of the University of Islamabad was also discussed in the meeting and it was decided that the committee would visit the location of university before provision of Non Objection Certificate to it. The Charter of the university will be examined by the all committee members, and then it will be discussed in the next meeting.
"We had visited the campus of University of Islamabad being established at Bahria Enclave Islamabad, adding HEC had no observation in provision of charter to this university." The committee also recommended that University of Islamabad would not be allowed to function until its hostel were not established.
During the meeting, Chairman HEC Dr Tariq Banuri in his statement said that as per HEC rules the degrees of those universities would not be accepted that could not meet the legal requirements of HEC.
Dr Tariq Banuri urged the committee members to play their role in provision of additional budgets to HEC as the deduction in HEC allocation was halting the quality education.
Member of the committee Ali Nawaz Awan suggested that the establishment of new universities should only be allowed on need basis.
Wajiha Akram asked the committee members to check the HEC page to know about the number and name of banned universities by HEC for not meeting its requirements. She advised the students to visit HEC Website before taking admission in any university.
The committee also recommended Capital Development Authority (CDA) to fully cooperate with the management of Federal Urdu University, saying it was a public sector university, therefore its issues would be resolved on priority.
Vice Chancellor Federal Urdu University Syed Altaf briefed the committee that 80 percent construction work of the university had been completed at its own land. Currently, he said, the university was paying Rs4 million rent of building which was a huge burden on the institution.
On his request, the committee directed CDA to provide necessary details regarding the issue by next meeting and issued the transfer letter to the university. The committee also took strict notice of the poor performance of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), saying it was being run without its permanent head.
Lambasting over the mismanagement of FDE regarding admission of students, he said, a number of students could not get admission in the public sector schools of Islamabad. FDE, Ali said, failed to resolve the pending issues of teachers on daily wages and contractual. This issue was pending since last ten years, he said adding that despite the open orders of Islamabad High Court and Supreme Court, the issue was yet lingering on.
In spite of resolving the pending issue of teachers, FDE had advertised the posts of new teachers, which was injustice with contractual and daily wages staff of FDE, he added. He assured that as a committee member and elected representative of Islamabad Capital Territory, he will ensure the admissions of the students in ICT Schools.
The committee recommended the ministry of education to appoint the permanent head of the FDE. The committee meeting, held at HEC Secretariat under the chairmanship of MNA Mian Najib-Ud-Din Awaisi, was attended by Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Wajiha Akram, MANs Ali Nawaz Awan, Mehnaz Akbar Aziz, Nafeesa Khan Khattak, Sadaqat Ali Awan, Farooq Azam Malik, Ghazala Saifi, Asma Hameed, Shazia Aslam Soomro, Tashfeen Safdar, Javairia Rafiq Mahesar, officials from the Federal UrduUniversity, University of Islamabad, HEC, FDE and from the educationministry.
