ISLAMABAD, March 13: Minister for Science and Technology Dr Attaur Rehman’s move to regulate and standardize the mushroom growth of different IT institutes was rejected by the law ministry.

An official source at the law ministry told Dawn that the ministry had said that education fell within the provincial domain under the 1973 Constitution.

He said a draft ordinance, submitted by the science and technology ministry to constitute an Accreditation Council for Education in Information Technology, had been rejected by the law ministry with an observation that under the Constitution, the matter fell within the jurisdiction of the provincial governments. The draft ordinance was submitted to the law ministry a few months ago for vetting.

The S&T ministry had waited for 18 months for the education ministry’s response regarding preparation of a draft policy. After failing to get any reply, the S&T ministry prepared its own draft and, after seeking approval of the chief executive office, submitted it to the law ministry.

The basic idea behind forming the council was to standardize different private and public institutes that were imparting IT education without qualified faculties.

There is a growing realization in the science and technology ministry that the future of graduates being churned out by these institutes was at stake as they lacked the capability to be absorbed in multinationals as well as local computer and software companies.