Sindh’s caretaker chief minister has ordered the province’s universities & boards department and Higher Education Commission (HEC) to conduct an audit of all the public sector universities, and to direct them to establish a pension fund for the timely payment of pensions to their retiring or soon-to-retire employees.
“I am surprised that nine public sector universities have not held their senate meetings in the last eight or nine years,” said Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar. “They must be taken to task and their senate meetings be held at the earliest.”
The interim chief executive issued these directives during a meeting of the universities & boards department and the HEC that he chaired at the CM House on Monday.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Dr Fakhre Alam, HEC Sindh Chairman Prof Tariq Rafi, Principal Secretary to CM Hassan Naqvi, Finance Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Universities & Boards Secretary Noor Ahmed Samoo and others.
Prof Rafi informed the caretaker CM that the Sindh HEC was established in 2013 with the mandate to promote and improve higher education, research and development in the academic arena of the province.
He said the HEC mainly focuses on faculty development, improving access to higher education, promoting excellence in learning and research, governance and management, enhancing quality assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and physical technological infrastructure development.
The important programmes of the HEC are the research support programme, MPhil and PhD scholarship programme, laboratory strengthening programme, and smart classroom programme, he added.
Replying to a query, he informed Baqar that the province’s public sector has 27 universities, nine of which have not held their senate meetings in the last eight years. The interim CM said senate is the apex statutory body of universities that also passes their budgets.
The meeting was also informed that most of the public sector universities are suffering from huge losses due to a lack of financial management. Baqar directed Samoo to conduct an audit of all the universities through well-reputed and recognised auditors.
The caretaker CM said the world’s universities have brought a revolution in science and technology, medicine and various other fields through their research work, but unfortunately, Pakistan’s universities have not demonstrated such commendable work that can be presented at international forums.
He said that most local PhD holders do not possess the same level of academic excellence as that of their counterparts in other countries. “So we have to examine where the flaws exist.”
He also directed the universities & boards department and the HEC to ask all the universities to establish a pension fund. He pointed out that retired employees of the University of Karachi and various other institutions have been running from pillar to post to get their dues. “This system needs to be reformed and upgraded.”
Strike at KU ends
On Baqar’s directives, KU’s teachers have called off their strike, a handout quoted the spokesman for the CM House as saying. Samoo and Prof Rafi held a meeting with the teachers on strike. Baqar’s condition for the talks was the resumption of academic activities on campus.
The KU staff assured the interim CM that they would resume the educational activities, then the talks were held. On behalf of Baqar, the universities & boards secretary and the HEC chairman assured the KU staff that their demands would be accepted, according to the CM House spokesman.