ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The government is working on a plan to make the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as one of the education ministry’s subsidiary departments, a source told Dawn on Saturday.

The HEC was set up in September 2002 through a presidential ordinance as an autonomous organisation. Under the ordinance, its chairperson was given the status of federal minister and the executive director as federal secretary. The HEC replaced the University Grants Commission which used to work under the education ministry.

“The government is increasingly working on a scheme of things whereby the HEC would be managed both administratively and financially by the federal ministry of education instead of its own chairperson and executive director,” the official said.

For this purpose, the government has to repeal or amend the existing ordinance according to which the HEC was made an independent department with complete control over its administrative and financial matters, he added.

During the last one week, HEC’s top officials have received clear indications that soon they would be given under the control of Federal Minister for Education Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani, he said.

According to an education ministry official, at present the ministry only controls schools and colleges which fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

Therefore, the ministry always wanted to bring the HEC under its control. Now with its increased budget, the ministry is more interested in looking after its affairs, said the official who requested not to be named.

After the formation of the present government, the HEC came under tough scrutiny for its increased budgetary allocations which had risen from a few hundred millions of rupees in 2002 to over Rs30 billion during the ongoing financial year.

The government not only imposed deep cuts on its budgetary allocations but also remained indifferent to its future projects. The government’s intentions became clear in the first week of October when it asked Dr Attaur Rehamn to resign as chairman HEC. So far, neither his resignation has been accepted nor any appointment made to replace him.

At present, the HEC is facing a deficit of Rs8 billion which is seriously affecting its operations.