Fifteen days

[namaal]

Fifteen days
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
From Print Edition
The News

The appointments crisis that has brought governance to a halt is symbolized by the government’s lethargic attitude towards the Higher Education Commission (HEC). On August 26, 2013, the tenure of chairman Javaid Laghari ended and it took the government nearly three months to choose just an acting chairman in the form of Imtiaz Hussain Gilani. A an ad hoc appointment is only supposed to be valid for three months but, despite repeated deadlines given by the Islamabad High Court, Gilani is still the acting chairman of the HEC. The IHC has now told the government that it has 15 days to choose a permanent head. Previous experience, though, suggests that this deadline too may be flouted. After Gilani’s appointment in November, it took two more months for a committee to be appointment to shortlist possible successors. After another month of interviewing candidates, a shortlist of three was presented to the prime minister. Without giving any reasons for his decision, Nawaz Sharif not only rejected all three candidates but also chose an entirely new selection committee. This committee and Nawaz now have only 15 days to make their choice. There is no reason to believe that they will manage to do in a fortnight that which couldn’t be accomplished in the previous eight months.

The HEC is in dire need of a permanent chairman at a time when the provinces are unilaterally deciding to set up provincial HECs of their own. Such decisions cannot be rushed, even if they are justified under the process of devolution, since it would require funding and coordination from the central HEC. An acting chairman does not have the authority or credibility to solve this vexing problem. The new chairman would have to convince the provinces that areas like monitoring and evaluation and the fair disbursement of development funds throughout the country are best handled by the HEC at a federal level while the budgets of universities could be devolved to the provinces. Such actions and negotiations have been put on hold because of the void left at the top. Caretaker administration of important government departments has become a hallmark of the PML-N approach and no one is sure if it is because the prime minister is not satisfied with the quality of candidates available or if has more sinister motives, such as nepotism and corruption. In either case, it has led to ignoring court orders and allowing inefficiency and vacillation to blight the first year of the PML-N’s rule.