Daily Times

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with M/s 1LINK to launch an online/automated mechanism to facilitate cashless payments for its services.

The collaboration with M/s 1LINK, the lead authorized service provider for online payment services in Pakistan, will facilitate cashless payments for all types of HEC services through 1Bill via mobile phones or the internet and the students and all other users of HEC portals will be enabled to make rapid, online payments.

The online payment facility will be integrated with HEC online system and the users of HEC portals will be able to submit online fee through M/s 1LINK for different services provided by HEC.

The facility will cover online payment for local and foreign degree equivalence, national and foreign scholarship programmes, and Education Testing Council (ETC) tests in the first phase, and degree attestation in the second phase.

The main advantages of using online payment are to save time and introduce efficiency and transparency in line with the government’s vision.

In-charge Accounts Section HEC Mr. Parvez Iqbal and Chief Executive Officer M/s 1LINK Mr. Najeeb Agrawalla signed the MoU at HEC Secretariat, Islamabad. The ceremony was attended by Adviser (Coordination) HEC Mr. Awais Ahmed, Director Operations (PERN) Ch. Adullah Fayyaz Chattha, Director General (Finance) HEC Mr. Ghulam Nabi, Mr. Fawad Raza, Deputy Director (IT) HEC, Mr. Faisal Rafiq, Deputy Director (IT) HEC, Mr. Muhammad Awais Javed, Assistant Director (IT) HEC, Mr. Muhammad Bashir Khan, Chief Operating Officer, 1LINK and Mr. Umer Ansari, Head of Business Development, 1LINK.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Agrawalla remarked, “The customers of HEC will be able to use mobile banking, internet banking and over-the-counter practices across Pakistan. The customers will be able to make instant payments. The best part about 1LINK is that it is subjugated to Bank-agnostic model, which relates to all the major banks in Pakistan.”

Expressing his views, Mr. Ghulam Nabi said, “I am thankful to the 1LINK team for doing the signing ceremony and it would be a big change for HEC and for all the stakeholders of HEC. Through this, we hope that our attestation, equivalence, and scholarship related payment challenges throughout the world will resolve easily.”

In his remarks, Director General HEC IT Nazeer Hussain said that it is a big milestone in the direction of automation and facilitation for the public and was made possible with the support of dynamic leadership of HEC.