Senior Adviser and in-charge Federal Ombudsman Secretariat regional Office Karachi, Syed Anwar Hyder, urged Higher Education Commission to play more effective role to uplift standard of universities so that Pakistani students could avail education and employment opportunities around the world without facing difficulties. The senior adviser during visit of HEC Regional Centre Karachi here on Friday stressed the need of checking mushroom growth of higher education institutions and instructed HEC to take action against those universities and their affiliated institutes which lack quality facilities and were falling behind the minimum standards set by the commission. He said that there were several complaints that some private sector universities had opened campuses without getting HEC approval and fulfilling quality standards which resulted into difficulties and complications for over 10 thousand students who had moved higher courts in the regard. Federal Ombudsman secretariat had also received several complaints against universities which were looked into thoroughly and appropriate actions were taken to provide relief to the complainants, he added. Syed Anwar Hyder appreciated role of HEC in promotion of higher education in Pakistan, for setting and maintaining world class standards for universities and providing verification, attestation and other important facilities and services to a wide range of students from under-graduate to post doctoral level. HEC had a central role in higher education system in capacity of a regulator of higher education institutions in the country, he said and stressed on the need of establishment of statuary institutions to regulate primary and secondary level education in the country so that entire educational system from basic to higher level could be uplifted and standardised at par with developed nations of the world. “Developed and emerging nations around the globe allocate funds amounting to 5 to 6 percent of their GDP for education and Pakistan should also increase budgetary allocation for education to ensure provision of sufficient resources to education sector,” the senior adviser observed. Federal Ombudsman Secretariat (FOS) is providing relief to aggrieved citizens who had any complaint against any of federal department or institute, Syed Anwar said and informed that the secretariat had offices in all the major cities of the country which received over 100 thousand complaints annually. FOS regional offices in Karachi alone received and dispose off over 15000 complaints each year, the senior adviser added. Director HEC Regional Centre Karachi, Javed Ali Memon, briefed the senior adviser and informed that HEC was working with a vision of raising standards of higher education in Pakistan and certain measures were taken in this regard including Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN), online Learning Management System and digitisation of data. He said that HEC was providing grants and funds to universities for promotion of higher education and research besides setting quality standards and provision of state of the art facilities and guidance to universities as well as to students. The commission was focused on adoption of 21st century requirements by universities to elevate them to world standards, he said and added that Pakistani universities were performing well that was demonstrated by improvement of their world rankings. Though the government was providing funds, universities needed to generate their own resources to attain self-sustainability, he opined adding that HEC provided Rs 30 million to each university during COVID-19 situation. Later, the senior adviser visited the data centre, IT lab, attestation centre and other facilities at HEC regional centre. He also met students and parents present at the centre and inquired about facilities and issues. Ombudsman Office provides relief to retired official: On the directives of Provincial Ombudsman Punjab, the Police Department has made payment of financial areas to a retired official of the department. According to a press release issued here, an applicant, Rafeeq Ahmad, retired official of Police Wireless School Bahawalpur submitted his complaint with the Provincial Ombudsman Punjab, narrating that the Police Department did not pay areas worth Rs 516,000 to him so far which were outstanding for long time. The Provincial Ombudsman Office directed the Police Department to pay outstanding money to the applicant. The Police Department has paid the outstanding money to the applicant, the press release concluded.