The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has rejected Dr. Tariq Banuri’s allegations that the disbursement of funds to the public universities is done on a preferential basis.
Dr. Banuri had claimed in a television interview last week that the set formula for funds allocation was not followed in his absence and that some universities are preferred over others.
However, the HEC declared in an official statement that Dr. Banuri had tried to portray the special supplementary grant given to financially distressed universities, that was provided after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) orders and all necessary approvals, as favoritism to these institutions.
Its press statement read: “It is important to highlight that the figure of Rs. 6 billion supplementary grant, quoted by Mr. Banuri in the television program, is not correct. The ECC approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs. 2 billion for financially distressed universities, after the Court Order and not as a favor to any institution”.
The HEC added that it has been distributing funds allocated by the federal government to the public sector universities as per the prescribed funding formula.
Sharing the details of special grants, the HEC said that the decision was taken after consultation with the Vice-Chancellors of all public universities, as directed by the PHC.
It stated: “In compliance with the court order, an online meeting was held on 17 March 2021, with representatives of Ministry of Federal Education, Ministry of Finance, and selected VCs of all the provinces wherein short, medium and long term solutions were proposed. The meeting was followed by another consultation on 19 March 2021, in which it was revealed that four public universities in Peshawar have major pension liability of Rs. 1.95 billion. These universities include the University of Peshawar, University of Engineering and Technology (UET), University of Agriculture, and Islamia University, Peshawar”.
The presser further detailed: “During the meeting, it was agreed that aforesaid universities will submit their restructuring/reform plan to ECC whose implementation will be supported through the provision of a bailout package. Accordingly, HEC requested the Ministry of Federal Education for provision of a supplementary grant to 11 distressed universities in the KP, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces”.
According to HEC, a technical supplementary grant of Rs. 2 billion was approved with the direction that funds will not be utilized for pension purposes. The funds were disbursed to the seven most distressed universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan at the agreed amount to each institution based on the analysis of the financial data in the presence of the federal Ministers for Education and Finance, and the Vice-Chancellors of these universities.
Under the grant, the University of Peshawar received Rs. 520 million; the Islamia College University, Peshawar received Rs. 204 million; the University of Agriculture, Peshawar got Rs. 284 million; UET Peshawar was awarded Rs. 292 million; the University of Balochistan, Quetta, got Rs. 350 million; BUITEMS, Quetta, got Rs. 300 million; and Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences, Quetta received Rs. 50 million.
Source: Pro Pakistan