UNIVERSITIES are supposed to be institutions that open up young minds to different points of view and encourage cultural diversity. Instead, many of the minders of higher education in Pakistan appear intent on closing minds, and insist on implementing a regressive agenda.

A letter written by an executive director of the Higher Education Commission taking offence at a Holi celebration that occurred a few months ago at an Islamabad varsity is a stark example of this hidebound attitude. In the letter — which the HEC is now anxious to distance itself from — written to the managements of Pakistan’s universities, the official laments that the celebration in question caused “concern” and “disadvantageously affected the country’s image”.

She also instructed all concerned to “prudently distance” themselves from such activities. Perhaps one should recall that hooligans belonging to a religious party’s student wing roughed up revellers at a Holi event at Punjab University in March. Sadly, when high officials of the education bureaucracy express such sentiments, it gives obscurantists a chance to further their divisive agenda.

HEC officials have no business issuing edicts on such matters. The commission’s job is to improve Pakistan’s educational landscape, and cultural policing is not its mandate. Unfortunately, the ‘high-ups’ of this land frown on anything that even vaguely resembles fun or promotes diversity and inclusion.

Be it the festivals of different religious communities, Basant, or even celebrations of ethnic diversity, our cultural minders are quick to step in and put an end to such activities that may besmirch our staid image.

Secondly, as mentioned, the HEC’s actual job is to improve higher education; the state of our universities clearly speaks to the fact that the commission is lagging behind in this area. With the exception of a few private institutions, and even fewer universities in the public sector, our varsities are hardly known for academic excellence.

From the Musharraf era, when the University Grants Commission was reformulated as the HEC, the higher education bureaucracy’s focus has been on quantity, rather than quality. This means more campuses and sub-campuses have come up, but their output has hardly been impactful.

Moreover, the blight of plagiarism has cast a dark shadow over Pakistan’s education landscape, with even some vice chancellors exposed after stealing other people’s work. In such a dire situation, students holding Holi celebrations should be the last of the HEC’s worries.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023