Vice Chancellor of Government College University (GCU) Lahore Dr Asghar Zaidi has strongly condemned the recent major cut in the budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for the upcoming Budget for the Fiscal Year 2022-23.
Dr Asghar Zaidi turned to social media site Twitter to share his views regarding the cut and wrote, “ALERT: The Grant of @hecpkofficial for 2022-23 has been cut by 56%, & after inflation, the total cut is ~80%. How can the public sector universities function (and aim to do better than before)? We must give high priority to education and topmost universities”
ALERT: The Grant of @hecpkofficial for 2022-23 has been cut by 56%, & after inflation, the total cut is ~80%. How can the public sector universities function (and aim to do better than before). We must give high priority to education and to top most universities @gcuniversitylhr pic.twitter.com/cimUezlreh
— Asghar Zaidi (@zaidia) May 26, 2022
It is worthy to mention here that the current government of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has decided to cut the 50 per cent federal budget of higher education sector and suggested to allocate Rs 30 billion instead of demanded Rs 65 billion. The Ministry of Finance has communicated IBC (Indicative Budget Ceilings) of only 30 billion rupees for higher education’s recurring grant against the rationalized demand of Rs. 104.983 billion. The allocation is 45 per cent less even than the current year’s allocation (FY 2021-22) that was Rs. 66.25 billion.
The decision was being widely criticized by educationists, teachers, vice-chancellors and even officials of HEC as they condemned the government decision.
