HEC’s Search Continues: Chief Officer Post Still Vacant

16 Candidates Fail to Provide Relevant Information, Others Skip Interview

ISLAMABAD: The interviews for the selection of the new Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman, were held in the month of April, at the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training. After contemplation, 16 candidates out of the total, reportedly failed to provide relevant information to the search committee, with some even refusing to be interviewed.

The information required from the candidates was regarding their degrees, teaching and administrative experience, alongside their literature and research contributions, and the number of PhD students supervised during the course of their careers.

The former University of Punjab’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. Mujahid Kamran from Lahore and Dr. Tahir Rasheed from Karachi, showed skepticism over the selection process and disregarded the interview. The remaining candidates included Professor Dr. Khalid Mehmood Iraqi, Dr. Abdul Nabi, Dr. Qaisar Abbas, Dr. Saadullah Tareen, Dr. Muhammad Ishtiaq Qadri, Dr. Basharat Hasan, Dr. Altaf Hussain, Dr. Muhammad Azam Khan Chishti, Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal and Dr. Zafar Mueen Nasir.

The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training required the technical assistance of 4 officials from HEC, to verify the authenticity of candidates, as per their available documents.

Following information was furnished regarding the shortlisted candidates, whose names were forwarded to the Prime Minister, for further considerations.

Dr Tariq Banuri:

Claimed to have 10 years of teaching experience in degree awarding institutions as an Assistant professor and Professor, while information about his administrative experience was not shared. The number of international publications in his name were amounted to 20 but, the number of international patents was nil. The number of books published by international publishers were 5, while he also supervised 10 PhD students and won two international awards for his work.

Professor Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar:

He claimed to have 27 years of teaching experience in degree awarding institutions as an Assistant Prof, Associate Prof, and Professor; with 19 years of administrative experience. He claimed to have 101 international publications in impact factor journals. However, the number of international patents in his name were nil, except for one research product which was undergoing clinical trials. 3 of his books were published by international publishers. He supervised two PhD students and 31 post-doctorate scholars as well. He claimed to have won 21 international awards during his career.

Professor Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Chaudhry:

Claimed to have 30 years of teaching experience in degree awarding institutions as a Lecturer, Assistant Prof, Associate Prof, and Professor, with 25 years of administrative experience as Head of a department. He claimed to have 1,095 international publications in impact factor journals, while holding 63 international patents for different products. He shared the number of his publisher books by international publishers as 40. The number of PhD students supervised by him were 78. He had won 18 international awards.

Professor Dr. Anwar-ul-Hassan Gilani:

He claimed to have 36 years of teaching experience in degree awarding institutions as a Lecturer, Assistant Prof, Associate Prof and Professor, along with having 10 years of administrative experience in degree awarding institutions. He claimed to have 70 international publications to his name in impact factor journals. However, the number of international patents to his name were nil. 2 of his books were published by international publishers, supervised 20 PhD students, and won 2 international awards.