The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training on the instructions of the Prime Minister of Pakistan established the Prime Minister Advisory Council on Scholarships. However, the HEC chairman rejects the formation of the council and calls it “illegal action”.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

On Friday the ministry has also issued a notification stating that it is submitted that the prime minister has been pleased to constitute the prime minister advisory council on scholarships chaired by Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, Chairman PM Task Force on Science & Technology.

“The Prime Minister has been further pleased to desire that the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training shall provide the secretarial assistance to the advisory council. In this connection, Higher Education Commission (HEC) is requested to provide secretarial assistance to the advisory council as the majority of the scholarship portfolio is dealt by the HEC”.

However, the HEC chairman Prof Dr. Tariq Javed Banuri says that this is another illegal action taken by the federal government. It simply means giving some authority to Atta-ur-Raham to interfere in merit-based selection processes of scholarships.

He said that Atta-ur-Rahman has been salivating over the thought of controlling large scholarship funds. He tried to float several proposals but they weren’t approved. He did sneak some into his overpriced university projects. And now he has bamboozled the government into creating a meaningless entity simply to give him some leverage with existing outfits.