LAHORE: Punjab government has nominated a rector of a private university to represent the province as a member of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), apparently in clear deviation from the past practice of nominating secretary of the Higher Education Department (HED) as a representative.

Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi appointed Prof Dr Sumaira Rehman, Rector of Superior University, as Punjab’s representative in the HEC and issued a notification of the appointment.

Dr Rehman also held a meeting with the Mr Elahi at his office on Saturday, who handed over the appointment notification to her. The chief minister hoped Dr Rehman would vibrantly represent Punjab and assist the commission to promote entrepreneurship-based education programmes across the country.

Dr Rehman on the occasion expressed her resolve to help prepare talented youth having innovative ideas.

These youngsters would not only be given employment, but they will also play a robust role to strengthen the national economy, she hoped. She said diverting the youth towards the knowledge-based economy in educational institutions could certainly drive the country out of the prevailing economic crisis.

A commission member, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn the nomination of Prof Dr Sumaira Rehman was a clear example of “conflict of interest”. Being an owner and the rector of a private university, how she could represent all the public and private sector universities in the commission, he asked.

He said as the commission would be involved in devising national-level higher education policy, the provincial government should have nominated a person who could implement the policy in a professional way, like HED secretary or HEC chairman.

He said previously, the secretaries of all the provinces would be members of the commission and could represent the respective provinces professionally in devising the policy and also implement it.

He said that earlier the commission had barred the province from even nominating any vice chancellor of a public sector university, apprehending that they could not give a meaningful input in devising the policy beyond the perspective of their own university.

He added that Dr Rehman also lacked the experience of dealing with the public sector varsities. HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, however, rejected the objections while speaking to Dawn and said it was the prerogative of the provincial government to nominate a member to represent the province in the HEC.

He said the HEC members should also have the capacity to implement the policy in the province because the commission was facing problems in implementation of the policies after the 18th amendment that rendered higher education a provincial subject.

He said previously the HED secretary of a province would be the HEC member, who had professional capacity to implement the policy in their jurisdiction.

Earlier, the HEC chairman had also written to the Sindh government to withdraw the name of a member, who was from the private sector, and sought secretary higher education of the province as a member for better implementation of the HEC policy. Accordingly, the Sindh government had later withdrawn the nominee and nominated the higher education department secretary as a member.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2022