HEC declines to entertain ministry’s direction to stop interviews for ED

KARACHI: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has declined to entertain the request of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training not to conduct interviews of Executive Director (ED) and withdraw the notification of the newly constituted selection board.

HEC Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri has said that according to the interview schedule, the interviews of ED will be held on February 3 as per schedule. He said that we have resolved the legal objections raised by the Ministry of Education.

The HEC is an independent body and what we are doing is in accordance with the law, said Dr. Banuri.Earlier, the Federal Ministry of Education and Training had asked the HEC to stop the interviews for the ED.

In a letter to the HEC chairman, Mohiuddin Wani, additional secretary of the Ministry of Education and Training had ordered the HEC to resolve legal issues for reconstitution of the HEC Selection Board. He said the HEC has not submitted the minutes of the meeting that shortlisted the candidates for interview, nor has it submitted the working paper for the meeting.

The additional secretary said a representative from the Federal Ministry of Education and Training will not attend the Selection Board meeting scheduled for February 3rd, 2022 unless the legal objections are overcome. In his letter, the additional secretary also directed HEC to withdraw the letter of the Selection Board meeting scheduled for February 3rd, 2022.

Meanwhile, member HEC Akram Shaikh, while referring to the news published in Daily Jang and The News, has addressed a letter to the chairman HEC, saying such news items are detrimental to HEC's image. He recommended to the chairman to work for enhancement of HEC's image, asking him to respect and prioritize its decisions.