Daily Times

Sir: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has been striving hard not only to improve the standard of academic research but also to engage as many students in academic research as possible.

Students after finishing their dissertations are eligible to get a PhD allowance.

It is a gesture to recognise his scholarly endeavours for which he has spent three to five years and a reasonable amount incurred on purchasing books, paying fees, getting 400 to 500 pages composed at exorbitant rates, sending the dissertation through a private courier to two foreign scholars for assessment, etc.

In order to carry out research, I enrolled myself in the PhD programme in Federal Urdu University. I carried out research titled, ‘The political and milli services of Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani’. On completing the research, I was awarded a PhD in January 2011 by the Federal Urdu University. Soon after I received the degree, I submitted my application at the Sindh education department for my PhD allowance.

Since then, I have made many attempts to invite the attention of the department concerned, but all in vain. I request the HEC chairman, education minister Sindh government and its secretary to take prompt action against the pending applications for PhD allowance.

The officials creating hindrances in the issue should know that there must not be any discrimination either between the teaching and non-teaching cadre or sciences and humanities disciplines. The allowance to a PhD of the discipline of sciences must be offered the same as the PhDs of humanities group. It will encourage academic research in Pakistan.

Dr Syed Shoaib Akhter

Karachi