HED body asks PHEC to work ‘within confines’

LAHORE :In a strongly worded letter, Chairperson of the Higher Education Department’s Accreditation Committee has asked the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) to work in tandem with the Committee but ‘within confines’ as defined in the Commission’s Act.

Sources privy to the developments said the Accreditation Commission’s Chairperson Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi took a strong notice of the PHEC’s letter dated June 23, in which the Commission had contradicted minutes of the accreditation committee’s meeting forwarded by the Higher Education Department. 

The PHEC had observed that it had drafted the meeting minutes as the Commission was ‘requested’ to draft minutes of the meeting based on the decisions taken in the meeting and the same were also forwarded for further perusal. “However, HED forwarded the finalised minutes of the meeting of Accreditation Committee on May 22, 2017 that seems contrary to the factual decisions in certain cases,” reads the PHEC letter dated June 23, a copy available with The News.

The sources said the PHEC’s version upset the Accreditation Committee’s chairperson as he himself had countersigned the meeting minutes prepared by the HED. In his letter dated July 02, 2017, a copy available with The News, Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi (known as Dr ZIQ) made it clear that PHEC was not authorised to prepare meeting minutes and decision taken in the meeting was correctly reflected in the minutes prepared by the HED.

“PHEC has prepared draft minutes to its own convenience, that too without any lawful authority,” wrote Dr ZIQ. Dr ZIQ did not stop here and reminded PHEC ‘to work within confines defined and determined by the Punjab Higher Education Commission Act, 2014.’ He referred to Sections 12 (2) and 12 (3) of the Commission’s Act in this regard observing “the Accreditation Committee, and not PHEC, shall kick off the process of accreditation whatsoever.

However, PHEC, within the meaning of Section 12 (2)(f), can assign any other matter to the Accreditation Committee. The Accreditation Committee shall forward its recommendations regarding accreditation matters to PHEC, which, in turn, shall forward the same to the government along with its views, if any.” The chairperson further pointed out that “PHEC can cause the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of private sector higher education institutions and carry out their accreditation whatsoever, but through Accreditation Committee only as provided under clause ‘d’ of Section-10.” The sources said a comparison sheet showing ‘unauthorised’ minutes drafted by PHEC and decisions ‘actually’ taken by the Accreditation Committee as embodied in the HED’s minutes were also shared with the PHEC along with the letter. They said there was a hell of difference between the two documents showing that in its minutes the PHEC was too lenient with private sector institutions unlike the HED’s minutes. 

The chairperson’s letter also stated that three members of the PHEC were already members of the Accreditation Committee as per provisions of the PHEC Act.

“We invite the Chairperson, PHEC, in the meetings of Accreditation Committee only as a special case.” In the conclusion, he also observed that in future, sub-committee/s of Accreditation Committee would be constituted by the secretary of the committee (Additional Secretary Academics of HED Punjab).

A PHEC official said the letter contained foul language and it was regrettable that the commission's minutes were not being accepted despite request. He said former VCs were part of the team that visited private institutes and brought to light their legitimate concerns regarding accreditation-related issues.