HEC mandatory body for certifying fake degrees
HEC only mandatory body 'for certifying degrees'
Islamabad, July 27: Noorjehan Bilgrami, Board Member of Higher
Education Commission, has expressed her full support for the principled
stand of the HEC on the fake degrees issue, which has become the centre
of attention in the media as well as a matter of concern to the right
minded citizens of the country. In a statement on Monday, she
said the HEC was the only mandatory body responsible for certifying the
authenticity of post-secondary (i.e. university) degrees. She condemned
the unethical arm-twisting being employed to pressurise the HEC's
Chairman Dr. Javaid Laghari. "The HEC must follow the ruling of
the Supreme Court, and act speedily and to the fullest extent. Fear of
corruption or destruction of data, should lead to the immediate sealing
of records, and help of external experts and civil society persons
should be sought," she said. She said to reinforce its credibility,
ensure transparency and avoid conflicting reports the HEC should
henceforth consider posting updated details of its work on its website. The news
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Less funds force HEC to slash scholarships
Islamabad: It's official now. The Higher Education Commission
(HEC) will be substantially curtailing its flagship human resource
development programme, which it has been quite enthusiastically pursuing
since its inception in 2002. "This year the HEC would only be
able to fund 15 to 20 per cent students against its various scholarship
schemes. It is a major setback," HEC Human Resource Development Adviser
Dr Riaz Qureshi said on Monday. Speaking at a press conference,
Dr Qureshi said due to regular cuts in HEC's development grants, it had
left with no other option but to limit its scholarship schemes. "At present, our main concern is to support scholars who are already
studying in various national and international universities." In response to a question, the official said it all depended upon
government's future financial commitment towards the HEC because under
current circumstances, the commission was hard pressed to spare any
funds for its HRD programme. It is worth mentioning here that
during the tenure of HEC's founding chairman Dr Attaur Rehman, billions
of rupees were spent on sending Pakistani students abroad for higher
education. During the 23rd meeting of the commission, a formal
request was made to the government for financial help because "we are
finding it difficult to carry on with our development schemes for public
sector universities," said HEC Adviser Dr S.M. Raza, who was also
present on the occasion. According to an estimate, more than
250 ongoing development projects of public sector universities
throughout the country have been adversely affected owing to the
shortage of funds. Hardly any day passes when a vice-chancellor of some
university does not formally ask for financial help, said an HEC
official, who requested not to be named. This year at the time
of federal budget's announcement, the HEC suffered a major setback when
the government allocated only Rs15.762 billion against the demand of
Rs30 billion.Under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP)
2010-11, the government has committed Rs15.762 billion for the HEC,
showing a significant decline in last year's funding of Rs22.5
billion.The official said with this money (Rs15.76 billion) the
commission would not be in a position to launch even a single
development project. In the PSDP 2009-10, the government
committed Rs22.5 billion to the HEC but the figure was later revised to
Rs18.5 billion for its 230 ongoing projects and 128 new projects. The HEC needs more than Rs10 billion to support its ongoing HRD project
under which it provides scholarships to around 9,000 students. Around 4,000 students are in foreign universities on various
scholarships – PhD, MS, MSc, post doctoral, short courses, whereas rest
of them are availing financial assistance to study in local
universities. "Our major focus will be to complete ongoing
development projects which are into final stages, because with every
passing day cost of civil work is rising. There are several projects
which have already over shot their time limit," the HEC official said. Dawn
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HEC validates degrees of 224 lawmakers, 46 found fake
Islamabad: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on
Monday declared that the educational degrees of 224 parliamentarians
were genuine, 46 were found to be fake, while 11 cases of the status of
lawmakers' degrees were pending in courts. Speaking at a press
conference, Dr Syed Mahmood Raza, HEC adviser on quality assurance, said
the commission had come up with the report in its 23rd biannual
meeting, which was called to discuss various issues. The meeting
was told that the report on degrees was prepared in light of the
information received from various universities. The meeting was informed
that the report on the verification of degrees of parliamentarians had
been presented to the HEC chairman. Raza said the HEC gave a
proforma to the universities to carry out the verification of degrees
under a prescribed procedure. To a question, he said the HEC was
supposed to submit its report on the matter to the National Assembly's
Standing Committee on Education, but on the directives of the prime
minister, the report would now be submitted to Education Minister Sardar
Assef Ahmad Ali. "The prime minister directed the HEC to submit
its report to the education minister, not to any other institute. In
line with the HEC's ordinance, we are to comply with the orders of the
PM. So the initial report has been submitted to the education minister,"
Raza said, He clarified that the HEC did not have the power to
reveal the names of the parliamentarians whose degrees had been verified
as genuine or fake. To a question, he said a committee was
looking into the authenticity of the educational degree of FDE Director
General Shaheen Khan. Raza declined to comment on the Election
Commission of Pakistan's policy regarding proceedings against those
involved in forgery, saying, "Our knowledge about the ECP's policy is
limited to media reports, as the HEC has not received any document or
request from the ECP to nominate a focal person," he said. "In
any case, the HEC is an autonomous body that has its own mandate," the
adviser added. Daily times
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