ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: Senate Standing Committee on Education and Training on Thursday expressed annoyance on the extension of Management Position (MP) Scale officers of Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The committee instructed to get the extensions validated from the Prime Minister by December 5.

The committee also instructed HEC to make sure that copies of all future correspondence be sent to the ministry and the standing committee to avoid confusion.

Chairman Standing Committee Abdul Nabi Bangash while briefing the committee members said that on August 27, during the meeting of the HEC, extensions were given to Executive Director Dr Sohail H Naqvi and advisor Riaz Hussain Qureshi. On September 3, PM secretariat sent a letter to the HEC and instructed for the process to be stopped because the extensions were the prerogative of the prime minister.

On September 9, HEC notified the extensions and claimed that the letter to the PM Secretariat was received on September 11.

Chairman HEC Dr Javed Leghari argued that HEC was an autonomous body, so it had the right to extend the contracts.

He also informed the committee that a detailed reply had been sent to the PM Secretariat. Mr Bangash said that being an autonomous body does not mean that it had the right to use the powers of the prime minister.

He said that the committee had the feeling that HEC had gone out of frame. Mr Bangash advised chairman HEC: “Some one is playing with you, so you should sort him out”.

Minister for Education and Training, Sheikh Waqas Akram said that he would check why the letter sent by HEC reached the PM Secretariat so late.

He said that the HEC had to implement the instructions of the prime minister immediately.

He said that even a copy of the reply, which was sent to the PM Secretariat, was not sent to the ministry. Establishment division has also declared the extensions illegal. He also informed that the PM had called a HEC management briefing on November 29 to get a briefing on the issue.

Senator Mohammad Kazim Khan said that the attitude of the HEC was wrong and the commission should have followed the orders of the prime minister.

Chairman of the committee said that if the HEC does not get the approval of the prime minister till December 5, extensions should be considered invalid.