Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said there is no question of a cut in the budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
“There is no question of a cut in the budget of Higher Education Commission. I am aware of the negative effect that cuts have had on higher education during the past four years. I have given clear directions to Planning Commission & Ministry of Finance in this regard,” he wrote in a tweet.
Two days before PM’s statement, an opinion piece was published in The News titled ‘Abandoning higher education‘ by Dr Ayesha Razzaque.
“For the next fiscal year, the HEC requested a recurrent budget of Rs104 billion. However, a few days ago an official letter (dated May 23, 2022) from the Finance Division regarding the 2022-23 budget emerged. It directs the HEC to prepare a new budget for next year that fits into Rs30 billion, – less than a third of what was requested and less than half of this year’s Rs65.25 billion. Here I would like to acknowledge that Federal Minister for Planning and Development Dr Ahsan Iqbal has voiced his opposition to this news.”
Dr Ayesha Razzaque took to Twitter to share PM’s statement.
A thread by Dr Razzaque on the issue of HEC budget can be accessed here.