ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: It was all brickbats, and no bouquet, for the much-vaunted Higher Education Commission (HEC) when alleged high spending by its high-ups came under debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday, with the prospect of more attacks during a probe fixed for the house privileges committee.

But most of the scorn voiced during the discussion on a call-attention notice by five members of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was directed at Dr Javaid R. Leghari, chairman of the supposedly autonomous commission tasked to promote higher education in Pakistan, with Education and Training Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram, from the government-allied Pakistan Muslim League-Q, threatening to “fix him”.

The call-attention notice had sought an explanation from the minister about what it called payment of Rs1100,000 by the HEC for “the membership of Islamabad Club for its chairman” and about foreign trips of commission’s officers during the last year.

But Mr Akram expressed his inability to make a “brief statement” as desired by Ms Yasmeen Rehman of the PPP, who was chairing the house at the time, because he said the HEC chairman had refused to respond when asked about the notice, promoting a remark from the chair that “this is a serious breach of the privilege of the house”.

And then began an all-out, one-sided assault on the conduct of the HEC chairman and what the minister called “a mafia” even outside the commission shielding it from criticism allegedly in return for funding for their private institutions or for grant of foreign scholarships.

Mr Akram sought a directive from the chair upon which he said “we will fix him” before Ms Rehman referred the matter to the house committee on rules of procedure and privileges to examine the alleged breach of the privilege of the house by refusing to respond to the call-attention notice and called for a report by next Tuesday.

In the meanwhile, Ms Rehman also sought a report from the education ministry’s chief accounting officer to be given to the privileges committee about how the HEC was spending annul allocations that the minister put between Rs30 billion and Rs40bn.

“We are going to review the whole thing and we are going to fix it once and for all,” the minister said.

Mr Akram said the HEC officials, or their supporters from the outside, had been contesting criticism of the HEC’s conduct with a charge that the government wanted to control its affairs.

The flare-up in the house comes soon after the appointment of a new executive director of the commission following rejection of a second extension in the contract of his predecessor, for which the minister took credit.

Mr Leghari was appointed HEC chairman in 2009 after he resigned as a PPP senator from Sindh province, but he seems to have lost favour with the ruling party for unknown reasons as evident from Tuesday’s call-attention notice.

Earlier, the house saw Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman leading a second walkout by his opposition party in as many days to protest against what he called an “undemocratic act” of the imposition of governor’s rule earlier this month in Balochistan province, where JUI was a partner in the dismissed PPP-led coalition government.

The house unanimously passed a resolution moved by S.A. Iqbal Qadir of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on behalf of six members of his party recommending “awards appropriate to their services” for members of legislatures killed in terrorist attacks like Syed Raza Haider and Syed Manzar Imam, Sindh assembly members of the MQM, and Bashir Ahmed Bilour, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly member and senior minister of Awami National Party.

Two private bills were also introduced in the house on the first private members’ day of the present session --- one by PML-Q member Riaz Fatyana seeking a law to implement the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, to which Pakistan is a signatory, and the other by PPP’s Yasmeen Rehman seeking an amendment in the General Statistics (Reorganisation) Act, 2011 to make it binding for the federal government to hold a population and housing census in the country after every 10 years.

However, another private bill of Ms Rehman seeking an amendment in the Constitution to provide for representation in parliament for women in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas was deferred until next Tuesday on a suggestion from PPP chief whip and Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Ahmed Shah so it could be “looked into” by the ruling coalition.

But he said the treasury benches would accept the bill right away if it was supported by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who, in apparent reservations of his party about the move, remained tight-lipped.