HEC – a Faustian bargain

The writer (she/her) has a PhD in Education.

In my January 22 op-ed in these pages (‘Taking the HEC back to the future’), following the reinstatement of Dr Tariq Banuri as chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), I expressed hope that the government could bring itself to show some grace, accept the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) judgment, get back to business and leave the HEC to do its job. About two weeks later, I am saddened to say that I was hoping for too much.

The Prime Minister Office (PMO) is hellbent on obliterating the HEC’s apolitical credentials and bringing it under its thumb, using the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MoFEPT) as a conduit. Someone is whispering sweet buzzwords into the prime minister’s ear, with promises of quick political wins that will aid in re-election. In this Faustian bargain, three years have already been squandered by sabotage and obstruction and another lost to litigation. It looks increasingly like the government will end up the blue-ribbon loser, deceived and with nothing to show for itself in this bargain it has made.

The step that brought the HEC’s paralysis and resulting dysfunction to the public forefront was Dr Banuri’s removal. This was accomplished by first amending the HEC Ordinance in March 2021 to reduce the chairperson’s tenure from four to two years, and then applying it retroactively to the sitting chairperson, who had been appointed in May 2018 and was due to serve until May 2022.

What is less well known is that the meddling did not stop there. Since the IHC’s judgment last month, the government has moved to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court, even before the IHC’s full judgment is out. Furthermore, according to the HEC chairperson, a third amendment is presently working itself through the system, bringing the total number to three. To get the wheels at the HEC moving again, the reinstated chairperson restarted the search and hiring process for a new executive director (ED), the second-in-command officer at the HEC. Even that is being obstructed with notices through the MoFEPT, and a petition and stay order in the Lahore High Court.

On the introduction of this third amendment, Dr Banuri has this to say: “The government has prepared yet another amendment to the HEC ordinance, with the sole purpose of changing [the] HEC from an autonomous institution to a subordinate office of the federal government. The rationale for statutory autonomy of regulatory bodies is well known. The objective is to protect its subject domain, in this case higher education, and the rights of the individuals in this domain (students, faculty members, Vice Chancellors, and regulators) against expediency-driven interference from corrupt individuals in government.

“The amendment chips away at this protection in several ways. For example, under the amendment, all decisions of the Commission would have to be ratified by the prime minister, thus opening the door to potentially corrupt influences. Similarly, it transfers the authority of selecting panels of names for appointment as Commission members from the Commission to the federal government, thus enabling the government to pack it with its cronies, as is alleged to have been done recently. It reduces the powers and the status of the chairperson, shifts some authority to the Commission and the bulk to the federal government.”

All this last amendment will ensure is that the chairperson cannot appoint an executive director while in office so their own person is appointed. I had hoped for both sides to work together in good faith and get the ball rolling on long-term reform priorities. In the absence of good faith on the part of the government, Dr Banuri can do little more than clean house – which is being resisted tooth and nail – and ensure the system is kept from getting rigged even further by appointing controllable (possibly compromised) persons as ED to serve as handmaidens.

Despite the unprecedented dereliction of duty showed by the Ministry of Education and Professional Training and the Ministry of Science and Technology, whose members (allegedly at the behest of a private member) chose to sit out the selection committee for the new ED held on February 03, 2022, interviews were held and a candidate was finalised. However, the decision is sealed until the finalisation of the high court proceedings. One can only hope that this non-participation on the members’ own accord does not interfere with the selection and a valuable new precedent is set amidst this whole new legal battle.

In case the chairperson can go through with appointing an ED (which he cannot for now after the LHC’s stay order issued a few days ago in response to the petition filed by the VC of Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad) the government has already stacked the commission’s membership to disable the chairperson’s agenda with a few phone calls.

In the past 11 months, the HEC was brought to a virtual standstill. No decisions were made – except if they benefited powerful vested interests. Other routine cases piled up. Letters went unanswered, phone calls were not returned, and projects have fallen seriously behind schedule. There are allegations of loyalists being promoted out-of-turn and put in charge of key domains regardless of their lack of competence and integrity. The court-ordered reinstatement of Dr Banuri was welcomed by many with the hope that the organisation would become functional again.

Many pro-reform people that I have spoken with recently are of the opinion that Dr Banuri should just take his moral victory, considered a long shot to begin with, and bow out before the government does anything to embarrass him. I disagree. I would have seconded had the government showed its seriousness about guarding its institutions against malafide influences. However, I am clear now that putting in place an ED of integrity is perhaps the biggest service the outgoing chairperson can perform in the time that is left. Of course, much more reforms are needed but those will require more time and the commitment of a team at the HEC led by a chairperson and ED with a functioning moral compass.

The HEC began as an autonomous body but is now on track to become just another department attached to the MoFEPT, which in turn is being commandeered by the head of a task force in the PMO. If the current trend of politicisation of the HEC continues, provincial HECs and higher education departments, particularly in provinces governed by opposition parties, will (understandably) pull away and exert their independence even more, as has happened in the case of the Single National Curriculum (SNC). This will leave the HEC in Islamabad with little more to do than standard setting and coaxing provinces to follow.