Public sector universities: Prime Minister forms panel to resolve issue of funds' release

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Saturday constituted a committee to resolve the issue pertaining to release of funds to the public sector universities following the directives by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. According to a statement issued here, the Prime Minister directed the Finance Minister to resolve all issues relating to higher education and reiterated his commitment to give high priority to education.
He also assured provision of financial assistance to students studying abroad as per commitment. The Prime Minister stated that despite resource constraint on account of flood devastation, education remains a high priority of the democratic government. On the directive of the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister constituted a committee with Deputy Chief of the Planning Commission, Secretary Education, Chairman Higher Education Commission and three vice chancellors of the universities to resolve the matters pertaining to the budget of the universities.
On Thursday, the Finance Minister held a meeting with the vice chancellors at Higher Education Commission and told them that the government was not able to provide them the required funds due to financial constraints. The minister also told them that rehabilitation of the flood victims was more important than the HEC.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the vice chancellors told media at a news conference that they would go on protest and would have to close the universities and warned as a first step against the slash in HEC development budget, 11 universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would remain closed from September 20.
On their demand for restoration of funding for foreign scholarships and development projects, the minister told the meeting that the students who are at completion stage of their studies and projects where 80 percent work is completed would be given preference as far as release of funds is concerned. The Finance Minister wanted the vice chancellors to meet the expenditure with respect to 50 percent increase in salaries by cutting their non-development expenses as well as revising the fee structure upward.