They reiterated that the issue of HEC autonomy, which has already been settled by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, was being misused to give extension to Dr Sohail Naqvi. "HEC Ordinance is very clear that any person cannot become Member of the Commission for more than two terms of four-year each. Also, it is very clear that the Commission is not authorised to grant third extension to any member," speakers said. The association again vowed to extend full cooperation to the new Executive Director, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, who has been given additional charge by the government.
A confusion is being spread regarding authority for appointment in MP scale. HEC Ordinance 2002 does not authorise the Commission to recruit any officer in the MP scale because recruitment and extension in MP scale is the sole prerogative of the Prime Minister of the country for which rules have been defined by the Establishment Division and communicated to HEC vide their letter no. 6/3/2004/R-3 dated September 12, 2006.
The Establishment Division's has recently given additional charge of Executive Director HEC to Qamar Zaman Chaudhry It may be mentioned here that the same authority (Establishment Division) transferred Dr Sohail Naqvi from the Ministry of Information Technology to HEC in February 2003. As per HEC Ordinance, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, being the Controlling Authority of HEC, has a supervisory role and has every right to intervene and stop any illegal action taken by the HEC management.-PR