ISLAMABAD: Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Region (SAFRON), the Higher Education Commission (HEC) executive director Dr. Arshad Ali said on Friday that 65 public and private sector universities of the country had doubled their quota for students from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on SAFRON was held under the chairmanship of Senator Hilal-ur-Rehman. It was attended by Senator Hidayatullah, Senator Saleh Shah and heads of a number of departments and organisations. Senator Hilal expressed reservations over inordinate delay in admission of FATA students in country’s universities, and medical and engineering colleges, fearing that academic year of a number of students would be wasted because they were stilling facing hurdles in getting admission letters from educational institutions. However, Sikander Qayyum, the additional chief secretary (ACS) for FATA, said the FATA Secretariat would earnestly pursue the case of those students who didn’t get offer letters from medical and engineering colleges. Hilal complained to the executive director that the HEC chairman had promised to open universities’ campuses in each of the tribal region but that pledge could not be materialised. “We have abandoned buildings where the HEC can open campuses of universities in each of the agency in tribal region,” Hilal remarked. HEC executive director Dr. Ali said that 196 seats in medical colleges were reserved for FATA and Balochistan students with an equal ratio. “We know FATA is experiencing shortage of doctors,” he remarked. On opening universities’ campuses in tribal region, he said he would take up the issue with the HEC chairman. Senator Saleh Shah said that work on umbrella projects in South Waziristan could not be initiated, which was pending since 2010 and 2011. “Where shall we go and who shall we request to develop our war-ravaged region. We need schools and hospitals because the area experienced worst mayhem and turmoil. For God’s sake, come out of bureaucratic red tape and develop the shattered infrastructure in South Waziristan,” he noted. The FATA additional chief secretary assured the senators that development work on 19 projects would be launched by the FATA Secretariat without further delay. Shah said that recruitment of non-locals instead of locals would cause resentment among jobless educated people of FATA and this issue should be tackled on priority basis. “Of 200 employees, only four persons are recruited from tribal region in the FATA mobile health project,” Shah remarked. But the FATA ACS said that NGOs working in the tribal areas were now bound to recruit locals but they (NGOs) could only hire technical staff from non-locals if locals don’t fulfill the criteria. Senators Hilal and Rehmat Khan expressed satisfaction over the FATA Secretariat’s efforts to improve the state of Zam Governor Model School (ZGMS) Tank amid hopes that the once vibrant institute would be taken to new heights to achieve its past glory. The ACS reassured the committee that FATA Secretariat would leave no stone unturned to improve its education standard and the hiring of new principal with broad experience would help put the school on track. Published in Daily Times, February 24th 2018.