Devolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debate - All My ...

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Devolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debate

12 April 2011 Goto comments Leave a comment An amended, rationalised HEC needs to stay in place By Raza Rumi The 18th Amendment approved by the Parliament in 2010 signied a new era in Pakistans troubled federalism. Given our turbulent constitutional history, the new governance arrangements approved by all parties and federating units settled for a leaner centre and addressed long-standing demands of provincial autonomy. But the implementation of this amendment has been slower than expected, largely for reasons of capacity both at the federal and provincial levels. Despite the constraints, the Implementation Commission has delivered fairly well. Thus far, ten ministries have been devolved. Five ministries local government, special initiatives, zakat & ushr, population welfare and youth affairs were devolved in late December 2010. The recent batch of the federal ministries includes: ministries of education, social welfare and special education, Tourism, livestock and dairy and culture. Media rants: In recent days, a new controversy on the devolution of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has plagued the implementation process with respect to the 18th Amendment. Television channels have aired the views of technical experts as well as the usual suspects who rant on every talk show on almost every subject under the sun, be it defence, culture, or cricket. The move towards the devolution of the HECs powers and functions to provinces has been construed as another move by the semi-literate and corrupt politicians to thwart the degree validation process, which has been part of our pseudo political discourse. Such an argument is pretty lame, as the rule to have a degree to be eligible for an election has been done away with. The Musharraf scheme of a grand HEC, BA-holding legislators and controlled democracy obviously failed in 2008 when the electorate rejected his party and sent representatives who sent him home. A non-discourse: Most of what has been said on the HEC constitutes a plethora of comments, hysterics and opinions on the subject, which has sidetracked the debate altogether. From a national discourse on fostering federalism, we are now arguing whether HEC was an effective body or not? There have been sporadic protests overplayed by the media and random statements of Vice Chancellors who seem to be vacillating from one position to another. Furthermore, former head of the HEC, the talented Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, has not helped matters either. His direct invitation to the Army to step in and rescue the HEC is simply problematic. What do the armed forces have to do with this issue: they are legally not in charge; and by an educationist to make such wild calls, we can easily surmise that Pakistans democracy remains a sham, especially when it comes to the educated elite. Sanity, at last: Najam Sethi on his TV show argued for a reasoned debate on the HEC issue and emphasised that devolution of powers or functions to the provinces cannot be compromised. In a follow-up tweet on the Internet, he added: HEC debate should be how to minimally retain its best federal and international aspects while gradually transiting to maximally efcient devolution. Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, otherwise a erce critic of the HEC, has also alerted that a sudden dissolution of HEC will result in a free fall, due to a lack of technical capacities in the provinces and the important work that the HEC was undertaking. Similarly, Dr Pervez Tahir, former Chief Economist of the country, has also argued the HEC case in his op-eds published in an English daily. (8 April, 2011). Skeptics have also argued that we may lose nearly half a billion dollars of foreign aid due to be directed towards higher education reform in the country. Feisel Naqvi has made an important point that specialized regulation of higher education requires advanced capacities that are missing in the provinces. Devolution, a must: Conversely, the passionate proponents of total devolution of HEC unsurprisingly from the smaller provinces argue that this body had not created a revolution despite the sevenfold increase in its budget during the Musharraf era. Instances have been cited where the HEC failed to regulate many institutions, especially those related to the armed forces and had let many malpractices continue in the country. One rebrand MNA from Awami National Party opined during a-discussion, I am convinced standards of education in general and higher education in particular will improve when HEC is devolved to the provinces. I think we should all welcome the change and extend support to the provincial governments to ensure the devolution process is effective and smooth. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, the bold critic of Pakistans security establishment has also questioned the efcacy of HEC discussions and supported its full devotion.

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Devolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debate - All My ...

http://razarumi.com/2011/04/12/unpacking-the-hec-debate/

Unpacking the issues: Centralisation of HEC planning and resource management is the issue here, not the regulatory aspects per se. What needs to be understood is that the provinces, as the revenue generating units, want full control over the HEC budget and spending priorities. This is a fair demand given that we have a decentralised governance framework and the National Finance Commission Award of 2010 has increased the provincial shares in national revenues. It would be senseless for a body such as the HEC to fund laboratories in universities from Islamabad when education is a provincial subject. Therefore, we need to separate the two issues: the regulatory powers of the HEC which determine quality control, and the actual execution of schemes to use the favored parlance of Pakistans public sector development process. Therefore, we have three aspects to address: a) standard-setting and quality control; b) foreign education and aid management; and c) physical works and improvements in the facilities within universities. the way: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) formulates the policy in part II of the Federal Legislative List contained in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution as amended in 2010. Section 7 of this list states that coordination of scientic and technological research is a federal function. Similarly, section 12 is clear that the federation is also empowered to set standards in institutions for higher education and research, scientic and technical institutions along with education with respect to Pakistani students in foreign countries and foreign students in Pakistan (sec 17). Thus, the ultimate arbiter of this issue is the Council of Common Interests the apex mechanism in the Constitution, which mediates federal relations. Given this clear prescription in the Constitution, the HEC devolution can be phased in a manner in which functions such as quality assurance, foreign scholarships, and donor-nanced programmes ought to be retained under federal control. All other functions can swiftly be devolved to the provinces, as the momentum to change Pakistans governance cannot be halted. This is a rare opportunity, which cannot be squandered. Therefore, an amended, rationalised HEC needs to stay in place. Learning from past mistakes: A major wave of devolution came about in the wake of Musharrafs devolution reform in 2001-2002. Admittedly, that was done in haste under a particular authoritarian agenda, but there are lessons inherent in this experience. Overnight transition did not work out well as the districts and tehsils did not have required capacities or resources; and often faltered in discharging their functions under the new governance architecture. We are not known for managing change as it is induced through military revolutions, executive diktats and foreign advisories. Managing change is a sophisticated process that needs to be carefully deliberated and planned. The HEC is no exception. All of its good work, notwithstanding many failures, cannot be undone in one stroke. A hasty devolution will result in a crisis of sorts as the provinces are not yet ready with the requisite capacities to manage universities and deal with specialised problems that are associated with such oversight. Which way now? The way forward therefore, comprises four major steps. First, the unbundling of HEC mandates and functions needs to take place and considered by CCI as well as the implementation commission tasked with devolution of powers to the provinces. Second, regulatory and policy issues need to be kept federal in a single institution instead of diffusing them to the Cabinet Division (validating degrees), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (international scholarships) and Ministry of Inter-provincial coordination (administration of the National College of the Arts), which would read like a recipe for disaster. These federal ministries have generalist cadres of civil servants whose record of handling their normal work routines is unenviable to say the least. Thirdly, to fulll the demands of constitutional governance, the budgets and projects can be transferred to the provinces, which have sufcient capacities to handle physical works and even management through their higher education departments or wings. Lastly, a detailed programme for capacity assessment and development with the provinces needs to be designed immediately and implemented in the next 12 months whereby, some of the regulatory functions can be handed over to the provinces by April 2012. Thereafter, a smaller and more efcient HEC can operate under the Cabinet Division carrying out the essential standard setting, internal and external coordination and quality assurance and monitoring functions. he writer is a policy adviser based in Lahore. He blogs at www.razarumi.com and manages webzines Pak Tea House and Lahore Nama Email: razarumi@gmail.com Source :http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2011-weekly/nos-10-04-2011/pol1.htm#1 All My Posts, development, education, governance, Published in the NEWS 18th Amendment, Constitution, devolution, education, governance, HEC, Higher-Education Commission, Pakistan

7 Comments to Devolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debate

1. Majja KukadApril 12, 2011 at 4:49 pm There are some questions 1) Is this a real devolution as we know that HEC might be broken into different federal ministries so where is devolution for provinces. 2) Somehow the bad administration in HEC isnt a reason that you should dissolve or devolve that institute. 3) Form long term perspective we have to devolve this institute in gradual manner not overnight. Is this haste; with reference to Raza Rabbanis end to Financial Choudrahat is reason behind this. 4) Higher education is still in federal list of 18th Amendment not in a concurrent list which is vanished 9 months ago. By devolving it we are going against our constitution 5) After that devolution, means for KRL, PAEC and SUPARCO research scholarships only those candidates will be considered who belong to federal capital under ICT. 6) Afer devolution special quotas for Sindh and Baluchistan will be vanished and budget will be allocated according to number of universities and scholarships will be awarded according to number of enrolments in a province and there Punjab again got major share because it has more universities and enrolments. (capacity) 7) After devolution govt. will have to build HEC type organization which will be needed for international commitments which is wastage of resources.

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Reply 2. D_a_nApril 12, 2011 at 6:29 pm One rebrand MNA from Awami National Party opined during a-discussion, I am convinced standards of education in general and higher education in particular will improve when HEC is devolved to the provinces. I think we should all welcome the change and extend support to the provincial governments to ensure the devolution process is effective and smooth. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, the bold critic of Pakistans security establishment has also questioned the efcacy of HEC discussions and supported its full devotion. So the ;rebrand; ANP minister was basing the claim based onwhat exactly? Is this devolution only for devolutions sake? I believe that this is something that you can appreciate, ie, someone having this concern. Also, Dr. Siddiqa with all her scholarship is hardly an unbiased voice of reason. I have a genuine concern that the provinces are not prepared to handle this being devolved to them at all. How and what will they do once the HECs responsibilities have been shifted to them? Should the provinces at least not be expected to provide a blue print as to how they will proceed? I think that should take care of many concerns and furthermore University charters can be managed by the provincial HEC equivalents PLUS some sort of federal body. If anyone thinks that it is safe, responsible and risk free to lock stock and barrel hand it over to the provinces then that is fallacy. This has to be more than just about devolution. Reply 3. D_a_nApril 12, 2011 at 7:09 pm Glad to see you are no devolution fundamentalist Raza Bhai Reply 4. SadiaApril 12, 2011 at 10:57 pm Devolution of the HEC is a non-issue. Addition to the Federal Legislative List with respect to higher education makes the legislative intent clear. Focus should be on eshing it out rather than back-tracking and questioning devolution itself. Reply 5. RFI SmithApril 13, 2011 at 4:30 am This is an issue in other countries too. In Australia the legislation supporting universities has been at state level while between the 1960s and 1990s federal funding kept universities within budget. The federal level also provided the critical regulation on standards. Now that federal funding has diminished and universities depend on fees for about 60 percent of their income (much of it from international enrolments) the federal level is having yet another look at its regulatory framework. Universities claim it is intervening too much. The struggle continues. The nancial situation of many universities is suffering and the dependence on international enrolments is widely criticised. In the meantime the contributions of universities to scholarship and public debate seem to have lost a lot of punch. Reply 6. On Lahores canal | Lahore NamaApril 14, 2011 at 5:33 pm [...] corruption and its harmful effects and lo, our moment has come, India has shown [...] RazaDevolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debateAn amended, rationalised HEC needs to stay in place By Raza Rumi The 18th Amendment approved by the [...] Reply 7. Devolution in Pakistan: Unpacking the HEC debate | GlobalPostApril 27, 2011 at 9:56 pm [...] and federating units settled for a leaner centre and addressed long-standing demands of [...] Original Article [...] Reply Leave a Reply Name (required) E-mail (required) URI Your Comment

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