KARACHI: After the approval of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the provincial government has constituted a three-member committee to examine the draft of amendments to the Public Sector Universities Act.
The amendments to the act were suggested by Sindh Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Asim Hussain. The committee consists of its chairman Professor SM Qureshi and two members Professor Abdul Qadir Rajput who is also the chairman of Charter Inspection Committee and Vice Chancellor of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University of Law Justice (r) Qazi Khalid Ali.
The committee will examine in detail the draft amendments which are required to bring into the act, the proposals and suggestions of the committee that would be submitted within two weeks.
It is worthwhile mentioning here that Sindh Higher Education Commission remained inactive since the arrest of its Chairman Dr Asim Hussain. However, SHEC’s Secretary Navid Ahmed Sheikh is working on the post while Sheikh is also the Secretary of CM Secretariat for Board and Universities.
“Sindh government wants to minimize the role of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan but the irony is that the provincial government doesn’t have the capacity to provide huge funds to the varsities across Sindh,” said Dr Shakeelur Rehman Farooqui, president of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association, a body working for the rights of academic staff of the varsities.
After the 18th amendment, federal government handed over the education department to the provincial governments. Since then, the Sindh government is intended to take control of the varsities and had amended the Act of Public Sector Universities in 2013.
The varsities are autonomous bodies, which have their own rules and regulations while each have some uniformed decision-making bodies including Board of Studies and Research, Graduate and Research Management Councils, Affiliation Committees, Senate and Syndicate and these bodies work independently.
Published in Daily Times, August 23rd 2017.