HEC short-lists two candidates for full-time ED

ISLAMABAD: After more than 11 months, the Higher Education Commission has finally initiated the process to appoint its full-time Executive Director but the process has become controversial as the two short listed candidates do not fulfill HEC’s own prescribed criteria for the post.
According to working paper of HEC, a copy of which is available with The News, the short listed candidates include head of a non-governmental organisation with no experience of higher education management and an official of the commission, who does not have PhD qualification.
As per prescribed criteria laid down in HEC Employees (Recruitment) Rules 2009 the candidate for the post of ED should posses significant academic leadership experience along with an advanced degree preferably Ph.D. in any discipline.
But according to the reliable sources within HEC, the condition of significant academic leadership experience and preferable degree of PhD has been ignored in short listing process, which has created doubts on transparency of the process.
However the HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad claimed that post is administrative in nature so the condition of academic leadership could be relaxed. He said the short listing was conducted by a highly qualified screening committee but the search committee conducting interviews can even consider candidates who failed to make it to the short list of 10.
The commission’s document shows that 50 candidates applied for the coveted post of commission’s Principal Accounting Officer, out of which 10 candidates have been short listed for interviews to be held on March 19, 2015.
Being Principal Accounting Officer, the Executive Director is custodian of more than Rs60 billion annual budget of higher education sector and he also acts as secretary of the commission (governing board of HEC) which is also responsible for undertaking all key policy decisions for the evaluation, improvement and promotion of higher education, research and development. The post was lying vacant since 15th April 2014 when Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed took the charge as Chairperson HEC.
According to HEC documents, about 20 candidates were disqualified for short listing as they were above 55 years of the age. The prominent names include; Prof. Dr. Mansoor Akbar Kundi, Acting Executive Director HEC & Member HEC Islamabad, Dr Shaheen Khan Advisor (Acting) HEC, Prof Dr. Sarfraz Khan Director Area Study Centre (Central Asia), University of Peshawar and Prof. Dr Hamid Shafiq Vice-Chancellor, Gomal University DI Khan.
Among the short listed candidates is Dr Abid Qayum Suleri, Executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Islamabad whose main areas of specialisation include Food security, Environment; Sustainable Development in South Asia; Non Traditional Security Issues; International Trade; WTO Agreements; Globalization; South Asian Integration but he does not possess significance of academic leadership experience as he never been part of higher education set up on full time basis.
He has mostly been involved in development sector not higher education sector but as per prescribed criteria, significant academic leadership experience is required to deal with the important matters of higher education sector of Pakistan.
The HEC working paper mentions his working experience as Executive Director at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) from July, 2007 to present, Assistant Executive Director at SDPI from January, 2005 to June, 2007, Head of Programme (Deputy Country Rep), Oxfam Great Britain, Pakistan Programme from March, 2004 to December, 2005 and Research Fellow at SDPI from March 01, 2000 to March, 2004.
Similarly, in the presence of other qualified candidates with PhD degrees, Ms. Noor Amna Malik who possesses MBA and Master in Humanities has also been short listed for the post. She had worked as Director General (Learning Innovation) at Higher Education Commission, Islamabad from June 2006 to May 2014 but her contract was not extended beyond MAY 2014.
Other short listed candidates include, Dr. Mohammed Rafiq Baloch Director General HEC, Dr. M. Mazhar Saeed Director General (P&D) HEC, Dr. Kamran Jahangir Vice-Chancellor Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Dr. Qaisar Abbas Dean COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad and Dr. Muhammad Abbas Choudhary Ex-Vice Chancellor, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila.
While contacted by The News, the Chairman HEC said the appointment of Executive Director would be made strictly on merit. “We are looking for a qualified and able candidate to fulfill key responsibilities as the ED HEC. We want to complete the process by the end of March,” he said.
He refused to comment on individual short-listed candidates but claimed that the search committee will look into all the candidates who applied for the post, regardless of the recommendations of the screening committee.
He said his previous appointment as ED was made controversial by a certain lobby, which does not want promotion of higher education in the country.The chairman said the condition of age (55 years) is mandatory but the screening committee may also consider extending the age limit to find a suitable candidate.
Previously, the Auditor General of Pakistan in its annual report for the year 2014, declared the appointment of previous Executive Director ‘Irregular’ along with payment of salary as the appointment was made against the HEC Employees (Recruitment) Rules 2009. The appointment was also challenged in the Islamabad High Court by Professor Dr Qazi Aftab on the grounds that the appointment was not according to the prescribed rules of HEC. The notices were issued to the concerned parties and matter is pending with the court.