University of the Punjab in Lahore
In Pakistan, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has received a 2012 – 2013 budget that was ten billion rupees less than they asked for. HEC has had a hard year fiscally, and their budgeting situation is only looking worse.
Last year, HEC administration funds were not released in amounts up to 4.6 billion rupees, and 6.7 billion rupees for research were also withheld. As a result, students, professors and researchers protested by refusing to hold or attend classes, wearing black armbands, and demonstrating. Two million rupees were released on July 1st because of the pressure, but HEC is still unable to pay its own employees their salaries as a result of the remaining 2.6 billion rupees needed.
HEC is struggling to gain a foothold because of a 2010 constitutional amendment that stated it was the provinces’ responsibility to handle education. Unfortunately, if responsibility for higher education was on a provincial basis, it would probably bring down the standards of education widely. The issue was strongly protested in April 2011, and ultimately the amendment was declared unlawful by the Supreme Court. However, last month, the government announced that HEC would be a part of the Ministry of Professional and Technical Education, once again signaling its demise and causing many academics to fear for HEC’s autonomy.
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