HEC establishes Social Sciences Council of Pakistan

Islamabad

For further development of research culture in all disciplines of Social Sciences, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Wednesday announced the establishment of Social Sciences Council of Pakistan (SSCP).

The SSCP would be a conceptually independent body comprising professionals and HEC will release separate funding for the Council besides catering to the functional needs.

The announcement was made in the second National Symposium on Thematic Research in Social Sciences organised by HEC wherein scholars showcased their research in various fields of Social Sciences. HEC Chairman Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed and vice chancellors of different universities, faculty members, researchers and students attended the daylong symposium.

In his opening remarks, the HEC chairman urged the participants to identify weak areas in Social Sciences which could be focused for result-oriented research. “Social Sciences is a very important area, but at the same time it is a missing link in our education system,” he said, adding that it is our academic responsibility to strengthen our nation socially. He said that strengthening of Social Sciences in the country is necessary to keep the society intact.

The chairman said the HEC has been according due importance to all the three aspects of Social Sciences i.e., academic, research and social outreach, and several remarkable steps have been taken in this regard. He said that Pakistan has gained the membership of Asian Social Sciences Association (ASSA) and efforts are afoot to hold the Association’s meeting in Pakistan.

He said that HEC places 30 per cent of slots in its all scholarships programmes for the students of Social Sciences, adding that it has already doubled the budget for Social Sciences. He promised that the existing budget for Social Sciences will further be enhanced in the next year.

He lamented that as compared to economic and technological development, social progress is taken for granted. He emphasised the need for setting up schools for research in Social Sciences so as to promote post-graduate researches in the field.

Referring to the mushroom growth of illegal universities as well as campuses in the country, he said that HEC is against the use of higher education for commercial purposes. He urged the universities to pay special attention to improvement of governance and quality of education.

In his keynote address, Adviser to the Government of Balochistan Dr. Kaisar Bengali stressed the need for conducting research on prevailing social problems of the country. Emphasising relevance of researches to the social needs while pointing out problems like poverty, injustice and unemployment, he said that the structural imbalance of economy creates panic and needs to be addressed. He maintained that Pakistan does not lack resources, however the equitable distribution of resources is a need of the hour for national development.