LAHORE: The Punjab government succumbed to ‘pressure’ exerted by some private universities running illegal sub-campuses across the province and formed a new inquiry committee to look into the matter.

Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar directed the Higher Education Department (HED) on Tuesday to withdraw the inquiry committee formed earlier and constituted a new six-member committee. When asked, the governor house did not give the reason for changing the body.

Quaid-e-Azam University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ali will head the new committee while other members are Government College University VC Prof Dr. Asghar Zaidi, Lahore College for Women University VC Dr Bushra Mirza, Higher Education Department (HED) former secretary Dr Raheel Siddiqui, HED Special Secretary and Punjab Higher Education Commission P&D Director Noman Maqbool Rao.

‘Owners avoiding forensic audit’

The committee is supposed to conduct a thorough inquiry into all the issues of private sub-campuses and submit its report to the governor in two months.

According to the Punjab Higher Education Department (HED), 23 sub-campuses of private universities were not only functioning without approval of the chancellor but had also failed to fulfill the minimum criteria of the federal and provincial higher education commissions.

The sub-campuses were stopped from further intake of students for not following and implementing the HEC guidelines. The illegal campuses are: National College of Business Administration and Economics sub-campuses at Bahawalpur, Gujrat, Rahim Yar Khan and Sialkot, Hajvery University’s sub-campus at Sheikhupura, University of Lahore’s sub-campuses at Gujrat, Pakpattan and Islamabad, Superior College’s sub-campuses at Bahawalpur, Gujrat, Rahim Yar Khan and Sialkot and University of Central Punjab’s sub-campuses at Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Sialkot.

The HED had, on July 1, constituted a four-member inquiry committee headed by retired federal secretary Mazhar Ali Khan while University of Engineering Vice chancellor Prof Dr Mansoor Sarwar, accreditation committee member Khalid Rehman and HED deputy secretary Ali Ahmed were its members.

The department also set TORs for the committee to see whether the campuses in question were meeting requirements under the Government of Punjab Higher Education Department’s Policy 2006 and HEC’s guidelines covering all issues including hiring of faculty, approval of programmes, minimum land required to open a campus and its ownership, scholarships, working capital, endowment fund and other infrastructure.

Recently, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal had forwarded recommendations of NAB’s Prevention Committee on “Educational institutions offering courses with NOC of HEC and accreditation by the authorities/ bodies” to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for further necessary action.

A senior official on condition of anonymity told Dawn that the private universities were avoiding forensic audit. He said the universities could not use the money to establish other businesses under the act of these universities, especially investing in foreign countries.

He said no major anomaly could be fixed on these universities without forensic audit. “The owners of these universities are exerting pressures from different sides,” he said.

Answering a question, he said the July 1 committee was not allowed to function properly. He said the new committee was formed by the Governor while old one was selected by the HED Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar issued a news release and said the government believed in ensuring merit and transparency and the students are the future of the country. “It is our responsibility to ensure the provision of quality education to them as well as all private universities across Punjab.

He said an inquiry committee was constituted to thoroughly check the facilities provided to the students of the private universities sub-campuses and all the facts regarding these sub-campuses will come to light after inquiry and action will be taken over mismanagement.

Mr Sarwar said that it is also the responsibility of the universities to ensure the provision of facilities and quality of education in their sub-campuses should be as per the directions of the Higher Education Commission.

HED secretary Zulfiqar Ghuman was not available for a comment.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2020