The most cosmetic 18th Amendment in the Pakistan Constitution 1973 has proved gradual decline in most devolved subjects to the provinces. The 18th Amendment Act 2010 was passed in the National Assembly on April 8, 2011, that introduced a number of changes in the constitution and amended 102 articles and devolved 47 subjects to the exclusive legislative and executive domain of the provinces. Education was one of the key subjects devolved to the provincial mandate. The concurrent legislative list that included education as a shared legislative jurisdiction at the federal and provincial level was omitted, and so far it had negative impact on education in general and higher education in particular. Having been unable to manage the secondary school education and had already earned bad name for their educational system that had proved to be a failure in many ways, the provinces were given the task of higher education too like many other ‘devolved subjects’. Six years on, the provinces are still in doldrums on fulfilling their international responsibilities on the devolved subjects. It seems that they don’t have the resources and will to implement the 18th Amendment in its true spirit. Same is the case with the higher education being apparently managed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) at the federal level while the provincial HECs are also popping up with the same mandate in the provinces. So, the situation is quite obvious that even a layman can well imagine the future of higher education in Pakistan in the presence of ‘too many cooks’ — one federal and presumably four provincial. The rift has already taken off between the provinces of Punjab and Sindh versus federal on the scope of mandate, authority and resources. Certainly all three aforementioned elements are captivating, especially the lucrative financial resources that could bring more importance to even a lesser child — an undeserving chairman of any HEC if it has to be a non-competitive political decision. Six years on, the provinces are still in the doldrums on fulfilling their international responsibilities on devolved subjects. It seems that they don’t have the resources and the will to implement the 18th Amendment in its true spirit We have seen immense politicising of every sector of national importance. Same is the case with the higher education. Before the 18th Amendment, all the four provinces were playing the role of watchdogs on the Higher Education Commission (HEC) at the federal level. Many believe the oversight on the provincial HECs would become dimmer. There is a firm opinion of education experts that political influence mounted on the provincial HECs would further decline the standard of higher education that is already not up to the expectation. There is evidently proved opinion that the standards have already declined in the recent years. An audit report of the 2015-16 is also in circulation that reflects the incompetency of the federal HEC to spend the released funds. It states that Rs 1965 million were approved while Rs 770 million of funds were released for infrastructure development and the federal HEC could spend less than a half of it. Many say the decline of the HEC proficiency and performance is the result of favouritism and lack of oversight. Two years back, the Islamabad Policy Research Institute conducted a consultation for a research on the post 18th Amendment changes in the federal HEC status. Let’s have a look on the findings and recommendations. 18th amendment added ‘standards in institutions for higher education and research, scientific and technical institutions’ to the Federal Legislative List II. The amendment did not, however, touch two items on Federal Legislative List Part I — ‘Federal agencies and institutes created for the purpose of doing research, for professional or technical training, or for the promotion of special studies,’ and ‘Education with respect to Pakistani students in foreign countries and foreign students in Pakistan.’ The functions of the HEC were not completely devolved to the provinces since some of its functions were handed over to five different ministries at the federal level with only few subjects left to be handled by the HEC. The federal government placed the HEC under the Ministry of Professional and Technical Training. Prior to the 18th Amendment, HEC worked directly under the Prime Minister, and HEC chairman was equivalent to a federal minister in status. The confusion needs to be resolved as to what shall be the functions of the provincial HECs and what shall still remain with federal HEC. The higher education is one of the subjects out of 47 that were devolved to provinces and continue to face devaluation in the hands of incompetent and resource-starved provinces marred by the political segregation and lack of drive to benefit the voiceless people. Whether the 18th Amendment in the constitution was made in the blind love for provincial autonomy or it was a devolution step for a political scoring that erupted unforeseen consequences remains an unanswered question. Whatever the positive or negative consequences, the provinces and the federation are bearing or likely to bear in the days to come would make no difference to the ‘historic image’ of Mian Raza Rabbani, the proponent of the 18th Amendment. Whether nation would get the actual benefits of the 18th Amendment or remain in chaos for decades, he has been benefited with the chairmanship of the Senate of Pakistan and an unravel image. The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed Published in Daily Times, October 17th 2017.