Fate of higher education (DAWN- February 11, 2009)
THE role higher education plays in the development of any nation needs no debate. The initiative taken by the former chairman of the HEC, Dr Ataur Rehman, is indeed splendid; and the facilitation provided by the then president Musharraf is worth admiring as well.

They say give the devil his due, so we must be thankful to Gen (r ) Musharraf for setting precedent by managing to send abroad more than 100 students every year for PhD. But, rather unfortunately, this was not followed through by the subsequent `democratic` government.

No doubt the state is facing the hardest of times. So they can reduce the number of scholarships instead of omitting them altogether. Sadly enough, if scholarships are granted by other countries, for instance Cultural Exchange Scholarships in November 2008, they fall victim to nepotism and corruption.

My case would be worth mentioning over here. I scored superb marks in the test for the aforesaid scholarship, conducted by NTS. Later when I contacted NTS, they referred me to the ministry of education and I got no response from that particular ministry.

For the sake of future of Pakistan, the regime needs to set its priorities right. Education, or higher education for that matter, is too important an issue to be ignored in the state planning. The HEC should be made an autonomous body as it was in the previous regime. Moreover, the procedure for scholarships should be above board as it was supposed to be from 2001 to 2007.

AMIR IKRAM

Lahore