ISLAMABAD: The process to fill the vacant post of the chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) was again delayed as the candidates’ interviews scheduled for March 18 and 19 were cancelled on Monday.

On the other hand, the candidates who had already reached the federal capital from different parts of the country to appear before the search committee for interview expressed concerns that the process may be revised.

The committee formed on March 13 had issued interview letters to 19 candidates. They were scheduled to appear before the committee for the interview in A. Block of Pak Secretariat (Ministry of Water and Power).

Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Mohammad Asif is the head of the search committee while State Minister for Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education Balighur Rehman, Minister for Law Zahid Hamid and Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatmi are its members. Akhlaq Tarar, a bureaucrat, is the secretary of the committee.

An official of the Ministry of Education requesting not to be identified said another search committee headed by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal had received 103 applications and 21 of them were short listed. However, 19 appeared before the committee for the interview on February 10 and 11.

On February 12, the names of three candidates - Executive Director HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Rector National Textile University Faisalabad Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad and former vice chancellor of Karakorum International University Dr Najma Najam - were sent to the prime minister for nomination of one of them. However, the prime minister rejected all the names and reconstituted the search committee. But Ahsan Iqbal refused to chair the new committee.

An official letter issued by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom Division on Monday stated: “It is to inform that due to the preoccupation of the members of the search committee, the interviews scheduled for 18th and 19th March have been cancelled. The new dates and time will be conveyed to the candidates later.”

One of the candidates, who had already reached Islamabad, told Dawn that the language of the letter had perturbed him.

“It should have stated that the interviews have been postponed, not cancelled. I am concerned that some elements were behind the cancellation of the interviews and wanted to start the process afresh,” he said.

He said he had been told by the MET that the king of Bahrain was visiting Pakistan due to which the interviews were cancelled. The search committee should have announced some other dates for the interviews,” he said.

The post of the HEC chairperson was advertised and applications were received from all over the country. “I have learnt that some persons who could not apply for the post have been trying to participate in the interviews. It will be against rules,” he said.

Another candidate said a majority of the candidates were concerned that they were being sidelined.

“It seems that not a single candidate out of the 19 called for the interviews will be appointed as the HEC chairperson. In that case, we will approach the court because if the government wants to appoint the HEC chairperson without the competitive process it should not have started the process,” he said.

“The appointment of the HEC chief on merit and in a transparent manner is a real test case for the PML-N government. As per the HEC Act, only a qualified person of international eminence and proven ability with significant contribution to higher education as teacher, researcher and administrator can be appointed as the HEC chairman,” he said.

The HEC, the only regulatory body of higher educational institutions in the country, has been without a permanent chairman since August 26, 2013. Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, the vice chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, was given the acting charge on November 9, 2013.