Selection of candidates for HEC executive director’s post completed

The selection of candidates for the important and powerful post of the executive director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has been completed.

However, the selection conducted without criteria based only on scoring has led to the possibility of candidates from the country’s top and big universities and important positions in the Higher Education Commission being eliminated from the race for the post of ED, while candidates from small and unknown universities have emerged in the race based on scoring, which may raise questions about the selection of the executive director.

Interviews of candidates for the post of executive director are likely to be held next Friday. Seventy-four applications were received for the post, which were examined by a committee. However, the committee prepared a list of candidates based on scoring without an effective scale, in which 20 marks were given for competence, 20 marks for leadership (finance, HR and project completion), 30 marks for experience in using knowledge for socio-economic development in the education sector, while 30 marks were given for senior management experience in industry, economy and social sector.

The committee scored the candidates on the same basis; however, remarks were also written on the scoring sheet by entering the marks of the candidates. In some sentences, partial provision of documentary evidence, non-provision of NOC and various shortcomings have also been mentioned; however, they have been placed higher on the basis of marks.

The News has also obtained from its informed sources the names of some prominent candidates for the post of executive director, including Jahan Bakht, Zakaria Zakir, Khalid Mahmood Iraqi, Muhammad Raza Chohan, Muhammad Ali Sheikh, Zahid Hussain Khand, Qaiser Abbas, Zahoor Ahmed Bazai, Syeda Zia Batool, Muhammad Salman Tahir, Huma Naveed Baqai, Syed Sohail Asghar, Madad Ali Shah, Muhammad Mazhar Saeed, Rubina Farooq, Muhammad Tufail and Attaullah Shah.