The Supreme Court has ruled that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) would continue to function and discharge its duties and responsibilities till the government brings about a legislation required under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
As the need to provide the desired legislation, apparently, didn't come under the serious notice of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms, and seen in hindsight was its critical failing, one will not be surprised to see chickens coming home to roost. Soon after the passage of the 18th Amendment, the parliament had to enact another amendment to cover the ground. And now there is the public outcry against the government notification to devolve the HEC to the provinces, which the apex court finds irrelevant in the absence of legislation required to take care of some provisions of Part I and Part II of the Federal Legislative List.
While the 18th Amendment completely deleted the Concurrent List and the Sixth and Seventh Schedules, the Fourth Schedule has been retained, including the "Federal agencies and institutes for the following purposes, that is to say, for research, for professional or technical training, or for the promotion of special studies" as well as "Education as respects Pakistani students in foreign countries and foreign students in Pakistan".
This is exactly what the Commission is doing since 2002 when it came into being, consequent to a Presidential Ordinance. Now if the government wants to dismantle the HEC, it has to do some legislation to take care of the above-mentioned constitutional provisions. And, according to Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, a 'draft law is being prepared' and before its finalisation all stakeholders including the HEC representatives, the vice-chancellors of the universities would be invited'. The court has accepted the government position and ordered that the HEC would keep functioning till the desired legislation is done.
Is such legislation possible in the given circumstances when the polity is so clearly divided over the question whether the HEC be dissolved in the name of its devolution to the provinces? In fact, the debate is getting contentious by the day. Such seem to be the sentiments that an otherwise moderate and balanced Raza Rabbani lost his cool on the floor of the National Assembly on receiving an incomplete report on the Supreme Court order, to burst out: "Probably, we are writing new history to stop the parliament from legislation".
As he spoke of this 'confrontation' between the parliamentary and judiciary some other members dubbed the public mood against the devolution of the HEC as a conspiracy against the provincial autonomy granted by the 18th Amendment. Pity, the parliamentarians seem to be missing the point that in the public's eye, the HEC's defiance against certifying the forged and fake degrees of almost one-fourth of our worthy legislators has brought the sword so low over its head. In fact, public resentment against government notification is so intense that the government might find it problematic to get the desired legislation.
Even otherwise, the HEC is the need of Pakistan as a federal subject, in line with practice in many other countries. The alternative, keeping the spirit of the 18th Amendment, to augment provincial autonomy is beset with apprehension that the country as a whole would be a net loser by handing over this segment of higher education to the provinces, which are not in the form to take up this challenge. Yes, to some, the unanimous passage of the 18th Amendment was a great job done by the present parliament, but the fact is coming under sharper focus that to put this piece of legislation to the beneficial use of the people, the parliament has yet to go a long way.