Пәкістанның Жоғары Білім Комиссиясы: Тарихы мен рөлі

Statutory body formed by the Government of Pakistan

The Higher Education Commission (colloquially known as HEC) is a statutory body formed by the Government of Pakistan which was established in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Atta ur Rahman. Its main functions are funding, overseeing, regulating and accrediting the higher education institutions in the country. It was first established in 1974 as University Grants Commission (UGC), and came into its modern form on 11 September 2002 after Atta ur Rahman's reforms, which received international praise. The commission is responsible for formulating higher education policy and quality assurance to meet the international standards as well as providing accrediting academic degrees, development of new institutions and uplift of existing institutions in Pakistan. The commission also facilitated the development of higher educational system in the country with the main purpose of upgrading the universities and degree awarding institutes in the country to be focal point of the high learning of education, research and development. Over several years, it has played an important and leading role towards building a knowledge based economy in Pakistan by giving out hundreds of doctoral scholarships for education abroad every year.

At the time of establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, the country had only one institution of higher learning, University of the Punjab and among forty colleges expanded to four provinces of Pakistan. Education policy revised by Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan, the government established various universities and colleges in all over the country. The same year, Mohammad Ali Jinnah held a National Education Conference (also known as Pakistan Education Conference) of academicians and state holders to revise the policy of higher education in the country, as he stated:

text= The importance of education and the type of education cannot be over emphasized There is no doubt that the future of our state of Pakistan will and must greatly depend upon the type of education we give to our children and the way in which we bring them up as future citizens of Pakistan

We should not forget that we have to compete with the world which is moving very fast in this direction |sign=Muhammad Ali Jinnah, 1947|source=

Many recommendations were directed and accepted by the government to established the University Grants Commission as a federal regulatory institution. Efforts led by Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy led to the imposition of Soviet oriented first five year plans which explained the first official education policy in 1956. The first plan was an attempt to make education development suitable for the socio economic development in the country. In the 1960s, the financial policies and economic programs introduced by President of Pakistan Ayub Khan greatly emphasized to importance of higher education in the country. Under this policy, all two year colleges were transformed to university status under the state controlled policy, and privatized universities were nationalized. During this time, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had spent 70% of natural resources on higher education efforts; enrollment in the universities increased to 56%. In 1979, President Muhammad Zia ul Haq's policies announced "The National Education Policy, 1979" (NEP 79) which saw the harmonization of higher education in Pakistan with Islamic concepts and the national ideology. The Chairman of the Higher Education Commission was given the status of a Federal Minister, while its Executive Director was given the status of a Federal Secretary. President Musharraf invited scientist and chemist Atta ur Rahman, who was Federal Minister of Science and Technology, to be its first chair, and immediately passed the Presidential Ordinance on 11 September 2002 to establish the Higher Education Commission. The reforms carried out in science and higher education during 2000 to 2008 have been applauded by international observers and he was called "a force of nature" in an article published in Nature. As a result of reforms introduced by Atta ur Rahman, sector 4 Pakistani universities became ranked among the top 300, 400 and 500 universities of the world under the Times Higher Education (UK) rankings of 2008. In an analysis of scientific research productivity of Pakistan, in comparison to Brazil, Russia, India, and China ("BRIC" countries), Thomson Reuters has applauded the developments that have taken place as a result of the reforms, since Pakistan has emerged as the country with the highest increase in the percentage of high highly cited papers in comparison to the BRIC countries. To facilitate distance education and to promote information technology, a number of facilitating measures were taken by Atta ur Rahman. As of 2020, Pakistan has 85% teledensity with 183 million cellular, 98 million 3G/4G and 101 million broadband subscribers, due to the foundations laid by Atta ur Rahman of the IT and telecom industry during 2000–2008. The situation in the higher education sector deteriorated in the subsequent decade with the rankings of all universities slipping badly. Javaid Laghari was the second chairman from 2009 to 2013 who tried to continue the higher education reforms despite serious cuts in funding and opposition by the government. He is known for his stand on exposing the fake degrees of many parliamentarians, including Ministers, in spite of pressure by the government. A task force was formed on "Technology Driven Knowledge Economy" that is chaired by the Prime Minister Imran Khan and has Atta ur Rahman as its Vice Chairman. The group has several Federal Ministers as members including the Federal Minister of Finance, Federal Minister of Planning, Federal Minister of Education, Federal Minister of IT/Telecom, Federal Minister of Science & Technology and chairman Higher Education Commission. The task force has the mandate to promote research in technology fields and to initiate projects that can use science and technology for sustainable and equitable socio economic development. Another task force of Prime Minister on science & technology has been formed with Atta ur Rahman as its chairman. As a result of the efforts of the Task Forces headed by Atta ur Rahman, the development budget of the Federal Ministry of Science and technology has been enhanced by over 600%, allowing a number of new projects to be undertaken. Pakistan's first foreign engineering university (Pak Austria Fachhochschule) was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2020. It incorporates a hybrid model involving a Fachhochschule half and a postgraduate research half, with a central technology park for promotion of innovations. There are eight foreign universities collaborating (three Austrian and five Chinese) to train the faculty, control quality, and eventually offer their degrees to selected students. It is located in Haripur, Hazara Division, about 50 miles from Islamabad. Similar foreign engineering universities are in the process of being established in Sialkot, and in lands behind Prime Minister House, Islamabad.

Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan and the official science policy in Pakistan plays a major role in the development of budget in the country for fiscal years. Since revitalized in 2002, the commission's budget increased up to ~340.2% in terms of fiscal period of 2001–06. Around 50%–70% of federal budget is set for the development on science and higher education, particularly distributed to the commission, highest in the financial history of Pakistan. Prioritizing the expansion of the higher education in the country, the commission's financial budget is estimated near 57.8 billion rupees, more than that of Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) or any other state owned enterprises’ allocations. German academic Wolfgang Voelter of Tübingen University in Germany over viewed the performance of commission under the leadership of Atta ur Rahman and described the reforms as "A miracle happened." After teaching and visiting in 15 universities of Pakistan, Voelter wrote that the "scenario of education and science and technology in Pakistan has changed dramatically, as never before in the history of the country. Recently, Thomson Reuters in an independent assessment of Pakistan's progress in international publications has acknowledged that in the last decade there has been a fourfold increase in international publications and a tenfold growth in highly cited papers, statistics that were better than the BRIC countries. American academic Fred M. Hayward has also praised the reform process undertaken by Pakistan, admitting that "since 2002, a number of extraordinary changes have taken place." Seeking to meeting the international standard, a quality assurance and accreditation process was also established, of which, ~95% of students sent abroad for training returned, an unusually high result for a developing country in response to improved salaries and working conditions at universities as well as bonding and strict follow up by the commission, Fulbright and others." The reforms brought about by Atta ur Rahman were also applauded by the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) which reported that the "progress made was breath taking and has put Pakistan ahead of comparable countries in numerous aspects." The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development has closely monitored the development in Pakistan in the past years, coming to the unanimous conclusion that commission's program initiated under the leadership of Atta ur Rahman is a "best practice" example for developing countries aiming at building their human resources and establishing an innovative, technology based economy." According to an analysis carried out by Clarivate Analytics and reported in the world's leading journal Nature, as a result of the reforms introduced by Atta ur Rahman, Pakistan achieved the greatest annual increase in research articles in the world (21%) in 2018. A number of institutions have been named after Rahman including the "Atta ur Rahman Institute of Natural Product Discovery" (RIND) at Malaysia’s largest university, Universiti Teknologi MARA and the Atta ur Rahman School of Applied Biosciences at National University of Science & Technology in Islamabad. More recently, the leading Chinese University on Traditional Medicine in Changsha, Hunan has named a research institute in honour of Atta ur Rahman,(“Academician Professor Atta ur Rahman One Belt and One Road TCM Research Center”) in recognition of his eminent contributions to uplift science in Pakistan and to establish strong linkages with China. Atta ur Rahman has won four international awards for the revolutionary changes in the higher education sector. The Austrian government conferred its highest civil award (“Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande") in recognition of his eminent contributions. Nature, a leading science journal, has also written a number of editorials and articles about the transformation brought about in Pakistan in the higher education sector under the commission. In an article entitled "Pakistan Threat to Indian Science" published in the leading daily newspaper Hindustan Times, India, it has been reported that C. N. R. Rao, chairman of the Indian Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Council made a presentation to the Indian Prime Minister at the rapid progress made by Pakistan in the higher education sector under the leadership of Atta ur Rahman. It was reported that as result of the reforms brought about in Pakistan " Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science". "Science is a lucrative profession in Pakistan. It has tripled the salaries of its scientists in the last few years.". Atta ur Rahman was conferred the highest national Award of the Republic of China, the Friendship Award, in September 2014, and then elected as Academician (Foreign Member) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a prestigious honour for his contributions to develop strong linkages between Pakistan and China in various fields of higher education, science and technology. The President of China Xi Jinping conferred the highest scientific award of China to the Pakistani scientist Atta ur Rahman in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 10 January 2020. He thus became the first scientist of the Muslim world to receive this Award. The next chairman Javaid Laghari continued the reforms initiated earlier but focused mostly on quality and research. During his four year tenure, emphasis was given to commercialization of research carried out in the universities and units to commercialize university research established in most public sector universities. Research output out of Pakistan increased by over 50% within three years, which was the second highest increase worldwide. According to Scimago world scientific database, if Pakistan continues at the same pace, its ranking will increase from 43 to 27 globally by 2017. In 2016, Thomson Reuters acknowledged the tenfold increase in highly cited papers from Pakistan as a result of the remarkable reform process under Javaid Laghari, and concluded that the rate of increase was higher than Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Among the objectives of this project a primary objective of introduction of Video Conferencing facility, launched by Atta ur Rahman, is to enhance students teachers interaction through distance learning, bridge the gap of good faculty, meet the shortage of faculty members at the universities located at far flung areas and ultimately to uplift the standard of education in Pakistan. The commission aims to give Pakistan a bright future through a young, qualified and energetic generation. Eminent scholars from Pakistan deliver interactive lectures on various topics and recorded lectures from foreign universities are also broadcast. The lectures delivered/broadcast are aimed to develop fundamental concepts, to enhance the critical thinking for under graduate and graduate students and to discuss cutting edge technologies/research work in the fields of modern sciences for students and faculty members. Interactive lectures from foreign universities are also arranged. Nobel Laureates/Eminent scientists/researchers are invited to deliver lectures to share their knowledge/research work. The nationwide distance education programme is being implemented by Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science Information Center, which is an integral part of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at University of Karachi. Currently there are more than 150 universities across Pakistan which are availing this facility for conducting lectures, meetings and other events etc. More than 5000 lectures have been delivered and these are stored on the web.

At the end of every academic year, a 3 credit hour research based activity is not envisioned. The attendance criteria of 70 – 75 percent is not strictly applied in undergraduate research classes.

In spite of its achievements, it was criticized by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist and a professor at the Quaid e Azam University, who maintained that "commission have made higher education more expensive." These views have been opposed by numerous eminent national and international scholars and scientists in the country and abroad. A strongly worded article against Hoodbhoy's views was published by Abdul Qadeer Khan, who termed commission as "a strategic organisation." Another work on HEC's praise was authored by Mansoor Akbar Kundi, former Vice Chancellor of the Gomal University and later Executive Director of Higher Education Commission. In his article entitled "Ata ur Rehman school of Thought" he has strongly supported the reforms brought about by the dynamic and focused policies of the Higher Education Commission under the leadership of Atta ur Rahman. In 2010, the altering of Eighteenth Amendment, whose clause was directed to devolved the commission, was strongly resisted by academicians, politicians, social activists and media personality; a strong lobby for the protection of commission was instituted by scientists Atta ur Rahman and Javaid Laghari. Scientists and academicians from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, PAS held a nationwide conference in 2011 under the Presidency of Atta ur Rahman to gain public support for the protection of commission at the public level. Laghari also went on a media and public speaking and OpEd writing campaign to save the higher education sector from the clutches of politicians. The status of the Executive Director as equivalent to a Federal Secretary was taken away by the Pakistan Peoples Party government and its powers to approve projects through holding Departmental Developmental Working Projects (DDWP) of a value of up to 100 million rupees were also abolished, thereby greatly reducing its powers and effectiveness. While Atta ur Rahman is known as the founder and builder of commission, Javaid Laghari is recognized by all academics as the one who saved it from devolution and disintegration. Massive anti Pakistan Peoples Party demonstration broke out in all over the country over this issue in 2011 and student unions gathered in the federal government installations to oppose the merger. In 2012, two petitions signed by Atta ur Rahman were filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the devolution of the commission and to preserve its autonomy. The Supreme Court approved the petitions, and Javaid Laghari, the then chairman, in the HEC submission to the Supreme Court, opposed the devolution on constitutional grounds, thereby preventing its devolution under the 18th amendment and guaranteeing its autonomy. Based on the position taken by the chairman HEC, the court issued verdicts against the government's decision. Ultimately, the Supreme Court rendered its verdict on the petition to preserve the autonomy of commission, paralyzing any efforts of government to devolve it. Following a political appointment of Tariq Banuri as Chairman HEC in 2018, a large number of Higher Education programmes were stopped or severely curtailed, including international scholarships, research grants programme, and free access to scientific instrumentation, with consequences that led to the removal of Banuri before his tenure ended and the appointment of Farooq Bazai as Acting Chairman. The National Accountability Bureau also started investigations of allegations of corruption against Banuri, particularly those related to cronyism, and misuse of public funds. Investigations have also been initiated against Banuri for falsely declaring himself as a tenured Professor before the selection committee.

The following is a list of people who have served as the chairman of the Higher Education Commission. One term lasts four years. Atta ur Rehman completed his tenure in 2006, but was given another term till 2010. He resigned on 9 October 2008. No. NameTenure startTenure endRef.1Atta ur RahmanOctober 20029 October 2008Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani (acting)9 November 201314 April 20143Mukhtar Ahmed15 April 201415 April 20184Tariq Banuri28 May 201828 May 20225Mukhtar Ahmed1 August 2022Present