Either you are reading it here or you have already heard about this in media that HEC is being dissolved, when you may have read/heard this first time, I am sure it struck as a big shock. Unfortunately if it is not stopped, it is going to happen, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan which is respected World Wide due to it’s very structure which enabled tremendous development in higher education in Pakistan in just 7 years, which is epic even if we compare to what we achieved in 55 years before that after Pakistan came in to existence.
For those who don’t know much about this, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as part of 18th amendment to constitution of Pakistan being dissolved, then each province will have to come up with their such regularity authority and will have to run the universities in their province.
In country like Pakistan which is already shaken and at its worst due to corruption and such evils, dissolving HEC will be a big blow. HEC was and still is one of those very few entities of Pakistan which are working on all cylinders and not yet affected by corruption.
But now seems like the corrupt politicians which have given nothing but just looted this country are about to destroy a very respectful higher education regularity authority. There is another big story behind that, but before we even get started on that lets have a look what HEC have done for this country.
Seven years ago before this institution there was almost no research being done, Pakistan had just 57 universities, none of them listed anywhere near in world top rankings, educational standards here were nothing near to being called anything like fine. Students had no easy way to access the latest research material on anything.
But then came Higher Education Commission, which changed the whole landscape of Pakistani Higher Education, how fast it moved, you will not find any such example over the world, worlds best journals and magazines have accepted and published these facts.
In just seven years now the universities in Pakistan under HEC are two and half times more then the number before HEC. Four of Pakistan’s universities have made it world’s top 500 universities, this number was zero before that. Now more than four hundred fifty thousand students are enrolled into higher education, this number was just one hundred thousand something before HEC. Now students of Pakistan no matter in which university, they have access to world best journals, hundreds of thousands of research papers, world’s best digital libraries and what not only due to the existence of HEC. Hundreds of students from Pakistan are studying in world’s top universities on scholarships from Pakistan, just to come back to Pakistan and contribute back what ever they learn abroad.
We in Pakistan never would have expected these kind of facilities without existence of HEC. One important name to be mentioned here is Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman who have lead the HEC in its early days and structured it too good that this is example for the world. HEC is success story only due to the hard work of this person.
Now HEC is under different management but still its running on all cylinders, more and more highly qualified individuals are coming out from universities under HEC just to contribute to the society.
At this point the government of Pakistan have decided to dissolve this organization and the back story behind this is that HEC was set to verify the degrees of Members of Pakistan national and provincial assemblies, after going through the process HEC came out with a shocking out come, revealing to the world that the degrees of more than 130 people in these assemblies are fake. Those fake degrees were only taken to fulfill the minimum education requirement to take part in country’s Provincial and National Elections.
This revelation from HEC was nothing less than a living nightmare for those corrupt politicians of Pakistan who are still holding their positions in National and Provincial assemblies even in the party in government.
The decision of dissolving the HEC is clearly a cheap revenge efforts from those corrupt political powers who don’t want this country back on the track of prosperity but want all the money in the world just in their bank accounts.
Dissolving the HEC is a clear effort to exterminate the quality Higher Education from Pakistan. If this happens the right of having higher education will be grabbed away from millions of people in Pakistan. No one then will be pursuing quality higher education in Pakistan.
By the way the political powers of Pakistan which mostly corrupt and infected will want seeing people of Pakistan left behind, as only uneducated people in future will choose them. But time is not far away and mark my words for this, such people are soon to be exterminated from Pakistani politics and the chosen ones will be only those who will perform.
Very serious efforts now have to be put in to save this body called Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan, we no matter what we do, need to stand up to save this organization just for the sake of future of Pakistani people and future to this great country called Pakistan on God’s green earth. Whoever can do whatever to save HEC, he/she must do it their capacity otherwise the end is near.
Finally I will suggest the people who have powers to take back decision of dissolving the HEC and don’t be accused of exterminating the Higher Education from Pakistan. Matter of time, you will not be here, HEC may be reinstated in future but millions will hate you now and forever for this, if it happens. A reality check is critical for you here, decision is now yours if you want to contribute positively or otherwise.