HEC stop Al-Khair University new admissions

Varsity barred from giving admission: HEC sets up body to accommodate present students
Islamabad, July 27: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has constituted a special committee to accommodate students of a private university which has been barred from offering new admissions since it had failed to comply with government's criterion set for degree-awarding institutions in the private sector.

The HEC had asked Al-Khair University to stop offering new admissions and those students who got admission to the university after April 30 this year, their degrees would not be acceptable by the government.

The university administration accused HEC officials of spoiling the institution which has been providing education to the middle class for the last over 15 years.

However, on the other hand the commission officials said despite repeated reminders the university had failed to fulfill government-approved guidelines, thus leaving them with no other option but to ask the varsity's administration to close its operations.

Al-Khair University was set up through a parliamentary act by the Azad Kashmir government way back in 1994.

The HEC has formed a special committee to shift the already enrolled students of Al-Khair University to other degree-awarding institutions to save their educational careers but its administration so far has not provided the required information to the commission, said an HEC official who requested not to be named.

Instead the university has moved Islamabad High Court (IHC) against HEC and obtained a stay order. In response to a question, the official said, the university had failed on every front, be it infrastructure or faculty requirements, and instead kept on offering affiliation to countless colleges throughout the country which was against its own act. "Under its act, the university can affiliate with other institutions, but could not offer affiliation to educational institutions," the official said.

To another question, the official said though HEC was hopeful of getting IHC decision in its favour, it would go to the Supreme Court in case it does not since such bogus universities could not be allowed to play with students' lives.

A number of cases are already pending in different courts regarding the validity of its degrees literally offered in every discipline ranging from computer sciences to zoology, law to engineering pharmacy, Arabic to Persian language etc.

On the other hand, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Al-Khair University Imtiaz Goriya contended that they were trying their level best to meet government's criterion for degree-awarding universities and had already bought 60 kanals near Palandri village in AJK and had placed advertisement in the press for recruitment of faculty.

He said at present around 10,000 students were enrolled in the university's various programmes throughout the country.

"We are already seeking a meeting with the Azad Kashmir president who is our chancellor to get relief from the HEC and hopefully it will be done by the end of this month," Mr Goriya said.

To another question, he said, the university duly got no objection certificates from provincial governments before opening its campuses under their jurisdictions. Dawn

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HEC's digital library not fully accessible
Islamabad: The much-publicised national digital library of Higher Education Commission (HEC) is not fully functional, as the researchers have limited access to online journals and books.

"More than 50 per cent books cannot be accessed and most of the journals that were available online are also not accessible due to which research work is being affected at the universities", said a professor of a public sector university.

The programme was meant to provide researchers within public and private universities in Pakistan and non-profit research and development organisations with access to international scholarly literature based on electronic (online) delivery, providing access to high quality, peer-reviewed journals, databases, articles and e-Books across a wide range of disciplines.

The e-books support programme allowed researchers to access most of the important text and reference books electronically free of cost in a variety of subject areas as, the HEC used to pay to the international agencies for the services. Now if a researcher tries to access a journal or book he/she is asked to pay individually by the international agencies as according to sources the commission has not been paying to them.

After the launch of the digital library the universities had restricted the funding of their libraries for the purchase of journals and books as around 45,000 online books in addition to more than 22,000 journals had been made available through the Digital Library Programme.

A senior professor of another university said that when the researchers have limited access to online journals and books and the departmental and central libraries of the university also don't acquire latest stuff they have no other choice but to choose their personal means to get journals and books related to their fields. And as a result the research work has been slowdown in the universities.

It's been learnt reliably that the life of the programme was nearly three years and due to the shortage of funds the commission didn't pay the amount to the international agencies for the service and gave priority to other projects so they have suspended their services for Pakistani university universities.

However, when Prof. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Member Operation & Planning, HEC, was contacted he said the library was fully functional. "But some links are very expensive so if a university doesn't use such journals and books we suspend the service of such specific books and journals for that university and allow other university to use it". The Nation

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University friends found murdered
Rawalpindi: A young man and a girl missing since Tuesday were found murdered on Friday in the man's car parked inside his uncle's locked house in Islamabad.

Postmortem examination of the decomposed bodies of Umair Baig, a resident of Rawalpindi in his 30s, and Raheela Aziz (25) of Islamabad, showed that both were given some poison before being strangulated to death.

There were no marks on the body of Raheela but a left rib of Umair was found fractured, suggesting that he had put up resistance to their unknown killers.

Umair and Raheela were university friends and went missing on Tuesday.

Search by the family and friends of Umair ended when an uncle made the ghastly discovery in his unoccupied house in Sector G-6/1-3. The house was locked from outside but the stench coming from Umair's car LXJ-484 parked inside signalled a tragic end to the search.

Police called to the scene removed the bodies to a hospital for postmortem.

"It is very difficult to say what actually happened. No account is available of their last movements that could help police to trace the circumstances in which they were killed," said a police investigating officer, waiting for interviews with the grieving fathers of the victims.

Umair Baig had left his house in Gulistan Colony, Rawalpindi, for Islamabad in his car on Tuesday. His family started worrying when he did not respond to calls made to him after one cellphone call home.

His father, Mirza Mohammad Azeem, a contractor, is lying ill these days.

Police said that in reporting Raheela's disappearance to the Margalla police, her family expressed the suspicion that Umair may have abducted her. But on Thursday they told the police that the people holding her had contacted the family and promised to return her the same evening.

That however did not happen and both were found dead the next day.

Police have started investigating the double murder and one officer was hopeful the murderer(s) would be traced and brought to justice shortly. Dawn

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PAL Waris Shah National Literary Seminar
Islamabad: Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) will hold Waris Shah National Literary Seminar on July 30.

Sufi poets from all over the country will take part in the seminar, said PAL Chairman Fakhar Zaman while talking to this news agency.

PAL is holding the seminar on the occasion of 211th Urs of Waris Shah, a renowned Punjabi Sufi poet. The three-day Urs of Waris Shah concluded in Sheikhupura on July 25.

Waris is best known for his legendary work "Heer Ranjha", which is based on the traditional folk tale of Heer and her lover Ranjha.

Heer is considered one of the quintessential works of classical Punjabi literature. Poets like Damodar Daas, Mukbal and Ahmed Gujjar also told the tale of Heer in writing. But Waris Shah's version is by far the most popular today. app

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