Daily Times

The Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the Presidential Ordinance under which top administrator of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Tariq Banuri has been removed from the post with immediate effect.

According to the notification issued by Cabinet Secretariat Establishment Division, Dr Banuri is no more the Chairman of HEC under HEC (amendment) Ordinance 2021. “Dr Tariq Banuri has ceased to be chairperson HEC forthwith and is accordingly removed from the post,” reads the issued notification.

A couple of days ago the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) approved the afore-mentioned ordinance and forwarded it to the Prime Minister for his official node to put it on the federal cabinet agenda. The Federal Minister of Education, who is also a member of CCLC, was supposed to brief the Prime Minister over the committee’s recommended legislation. As per the details, the cabinet meeting was scheduled on March 30 (Tuesday).

However, the ordinance has been approved from the cabinet members through a circulation method on Saturday and President Dr Arif Alvi signed the ordinance.

Last year, the Prime Minister constituted CCLC with the mandate to examine whether a fresh legislation or amendments to the existing laws were in line with the constitutional scheme, not in violation of any existing law, and fall within the mandate of parliament. It would have the mandate to also examine the contents of fresh legislation/rules as well as amendments to the existing laws/rules and give its recommendations as to whether the same were in line with the policy of the government and constitutional/legislative scheme.

The CCLC a few days back took up the agenda of HEC (amendment) Ordinance 2021. After deliberation, the CCLC in its last meeting, which was chaired by Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem unanimously, approved the Ordinance.

That meeting was also attended by other members included Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, Minister for Narcotics Control Muhammad Azam Swati, Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Minister for education Shafqat Mahmood, PM’s Advisor on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Zaheer ud Din Babar Awan, PM’s Advisor on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar, Attorney General for Pakistan, Secretary Law and Justice Division and a nominee from Prime Minister office.

It is worth noting that, except Chaudhry Fawad Hussain all other members unanimously agreed on introducing the Ordinance. Hussain, in his dissenting note pointed out some legal hitches that may become a barrier in approval procedure of the Ordinance.

Dr Banuri was appointed in 2018 during the tenure of PML-N when Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the Prime Minister, since the premier, as per rules is the controlling authority of the HEC. Abbasi picked Dr Banuri out of the four names forwarded to him by a six-member search committee for final selection. The committee consisted of Dr Sania Nishtar, former lawmaker Shahnaz Wazir Ali, educationists Faisal Bari, Mirza Qamar Baig and Syed Babar Ali and the then federal secretary education.

His appointment process raised many questions, as according to the record available with the Daily Times Dr Baunri is around 72 years old, as he was born on August 20, 1949. Serving against such a key position at 72-years is very surprising.

Dr Banuri is also a dual nationality holder as he holds US nationality, in violation of a Supreme Court of Pakistan’s judgment a few years back, which prohibited dual nationals from holding any public office of the country.

Since his appointment Dr Banuri’s performance has been dismal. His failures, according to HEC sources, caused his removal. The Commission is a monitoring authority of over 300 universities across the county. Dr Banuri’s unsatisfactory performance has also been highlighted in some parliamentary standing committees. The sources disclosed that the Education Minister Mahmood was also unhappy with Dr Banuri over his poor management.

Since he resumed charge, many pivotal projects in the Commission winded up due to his administrative failures.Adding insult to the injury Dr Banuri merely focused on appointing Consultants in the Commission against hefty salary packages. Such irregularities also perturbed the anti-corruption watchdog National Accountability Bureau (NAB), owing to which NAB has already begun an action against Dr Tariq Banuri over accusations of misuse of power and corruption.

Other than prematurely dismissal of Dr Banuri, the amended Ordinance 2021 includes 18 members of the commission; reducing their future terms from 4 to 2 years (thus rendering them ineffective); and transferring authority to a government-appointed executive director, who could be changed on a moment’s notice. Even though the HEC is based in Islamabad, four of the 18 members of the HEC Commission represent the provinces while two represent the Federation.