On Tuesday, Madad Ali Sindhi, the acting minister for federal education and professional training, informed the Senate that several private universities were permitted to operate across the nation in the past despite the disregard for the education sector.
In response to several follow-up queries during Q&A, he mentioned that certain universities were merely a few rooms big. Improving the caliber and standard of education is the chairman of the Higher Education Commission’s mandate, he stated.
The minister responded to a query by saying that Ms. Lubna Said, a Pakistan Administrative Services officer working in BPS-19, has been appointed to the open position of Pakistan’s deputy permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
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The officer holds a master’s degree in business administration with a focus on financial management from the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi and a master’s degree in international relations from Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.
He stated that on March 10, 2023, the national daily published an announcement about the opening for the position of Deputy Permanent Delegate of Pakistan to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
He claimed that Lubna Said was chosen by the then-prime minister from a group of three applicants.
In response to another query, he stated that ICT-PEIRA is authorized to control and set the tuition for private schools in Islamabad under Sections 4(c) and 5(b) of ICT-PEIRA Act No. XI of 2013.
The Honorable Islamabad High Court (IHC), he said, has struck down the enabling rules of the Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Fee Determination) Rules, 2016 for fee fixation and determination, namely Rules 36 and 37, and the mechanism defined as criteria and financial model as set out in Schedule-V and Fee increase proposal (FIP).
In this context, he said, an ICA has been filed but has not yet been decided. November 11, 2023, is the scheduled hearing date for the ICA.
He stated following the ruling of the IHC, ICT-PEIRA developed and published a Fee Determination Policy for PEIs in ICT, looking to the rulings of the August Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Islamabad High Court for a baseline.
But according to the policy contested, private schools have also disputed the aforementioned policy in the IHC, and the case is currently under review with the directive that no coercive measure shall be implemented, he said.
