Against the orders of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who directed the Finance Ministry to sustain the recurring budget of the Higher Education Commission up to Rs23 billion the cabinet has approved 30pc to 40pc budget cut in real terms annually for the next three years.
The cabinet has approved a three-year budgetary framework for HEC in which the recurring budgets will be increased only by 10 per cent, 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.
With an annual inflation of 23.5 per cent and rupee depreciation against the dollar by 20-30 per cent, this will mean a decrease in operating budgets of at least 40 per cent annually, a sure way to kill all the good work done in the last 6 years.
On May 12, 2008 Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had directed the restoration of a cut of Rs 5 billion made in the recurring grant of the financial year of 2007-08 for universities and sustain the recurring budget requirement of Rs. 23 billion for the financial year 2008-09.
The current total operating budget of all 60 public sector universities taken together amounts to a paltry Rs18 billion which works out to Rs300 million per university per year that is only US$ 3.7 million per university per year.
The cabinet decision to cut university budgets in real terms by 30 to 40 per cent annually for the next three years therefore come as a huge shock.
“There seems to be a conspiracy cooking up to downgrade the already very weak higher education sector. How can one think of improvement in the affairs of the HEC in spite of the fact that there has been no increase in the budget and the universities have no amount to give 20 per cent raise to the employees in the salaries announced by the government,” said one of the officials of the commission.
Moreover the future of the 4,000 scholars sent abroad for Ph.D. is at stake. The government has been spending about Rs9 million on each student making it around Rs36 billion on the total 4,000 students.
The commission needs Rs8 billion to Rs10 billion extra to absorb all these students to provide them research facilities and equipment and Rs4 billion for their salaries as they all will be back with in three years.
