ISLAMABAD, June 28: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will review the Federal Universities Ordinance 2002, under which seven federally-administrated universities have been given full academic, financial and administrative autonomy, an official source told Dawn.

After the hue and cry raised by the faculty of the universities concerned, the commission has decided to review the ordinance, as there are certain lacunas in it, he added.

The source said the ordinance based on the recommendations of a steering committee headed by Dr Shamsh Kassim Lakha of the Aga Khan University had only covered administrative side of the public sector universities. Most of the provisions of the law dealt with new administrative structure to be introduced, i.e appointment and dismissal of teachers, universities’ financial management and changes to the governing rules.

Under the new law, for example, the senate, which is mainly a nominated body, will become the highest decision-making forum unlike the existing syndicates on which teachers have enough representation as elected representatives of the faculty.

The ordinance said the universities would be given financial autonomy, but it did not explain the financial commitments on the part of the federal government. Unfortunately, the source said, the committee took a lot of time and resources and produced a document which was rejected by the affected universities.

The HEC is basically interested in enhancing education standards rather than changing the administrative infrastructure of the public sector universities, he said. At present, most of the universities in the public sector lack adequate teaching facilities and have not been given due consideration in the new law, but will be taken care of in the revised law.

He said after the recently held meeting between the representatives of teachers and the president, the latter was convinced that the ordinance needed to be reviewed.

He said the HEC Chairman Dr Ata-ur-Rehman had already started a series of consultative meetings with all the stakeholders so that an agreement could be reached in this regard.

The ordinance was promulgated by President Musharraf on Nov 13, 2002, whereby seven Rawalpindi-Islamabad based universities were declared autonomous, both administratively and financially. The universities to which the ordinance was to be applied included the Allama Iqbal Open University, National University of Modern Languages, the Quaid-i-Azam University, Bahria University, Air University, Islamabad, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology, Rawalpindi, and National University of Sciences and Technology, Rawalpindi/Islamabad. However, when the universities expressed their reluctance in implementing the new law, the president asked the HEC to review it.