LAHORE: Under the auspices of Pakistan Youth Council, the segments of civil society, teachers and students protested against the policies of the federal Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Thursday in front of Lahore Press Club.
The protesters were holding the play cards and chanting slogans against the attitude and defaming policies of HEC. They said that public money is being misused for organising meeting of the vice chancellors from all over the country at expensive hotel of Lahore on 23-25th May 2017. Such expensive events should be avoided and money should be spent over the missing facilities in Pakistani universities and promoting research culture in Pakistan.
They appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the situation. They were of the view that during last two years, the autonomy of universities which pillars of the higher education system has been undermined through various HEC notifications and HEC administration is directly interfering in academic, administrative, and financial functions of the public and private sector universities.
The recent announcement of Centralised Testing Service by Federal HEC for the provincially charted universities would take away the admission rights from the universities and after the 18th constitutional amendment; no federal entity could interfere in the provincial affairs of higher education and universities.
They also demanded from all the provincial governments to allocate 25 per cent of total education budget for higher education sector. The protestors also vowed to continue their protests till the fulfillment of their demands and soon they would extend this movement to other parts of the country.
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