ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has formed a high level committee for the development of social sciences in the country.

The former vice-chancellor of Karachi University, Dr Manzoor Ahmad, has been nominated the chairman of the committee during a meeting of social scientists. The meeting chaired by the HEC chairman, Prof Dr Attaur Rehman, held here at the HEC campus.

The committee has been asked to prepare an action plan for the systematic strengthening of social sciences.

The committee is a follow up of HEC’s project of initiating a Ph.D scholarship scheme for human resource development in social sciences, arts and humanities.

The committee will comprise Dr Najma Najam, the vice- chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Women University, Dr Zulfiqar Gilani, the vice-chancellor of Peshawar University, Dr Aslam Sayyad, Dr Tariq Rahman, Dr Muhammad Wasim, Dr Ijaz Hussain, Tanvir Anjum, Dr Khalid Ghani, Dr Dushka Sayed of Quaid-i-Azam University, Dr Lutfullah Mangi of Sindh University, Dr Talat AERC, Dr Iftikhar- un-Nisa Hassan of Fatima Jinnah Women University, Dr Muhammad Anwar of Punjab University, Dr Ghazala Irfan of Lahore University of Management Sciences and Dr Asad Zaman of International Islamic University.

During the meeting, Dr Attaur Rehman suggested that all the matters concerning social sciences and humanities be given priority.

A number of projects have already been formalized to enhance research and development in the areas of social sciences and humanities.