No slash in HEC budget for FY23: PM Shehbaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that there will be no slash in the budget of Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the fiscal year 2022-23 ARY News reported.

In a statement, the prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said ruled out any cut HEC budget for the year 2022-23 and vowed that Higher Education Commission will be made functional as it was in the previous tenure of the PML-N government.

Issuing directives to the Ministries of Planning and Finance regarding the HEC, the prime minister regretted that budget cuts in the last four years had a negative impact on education sector, saying that this process should be reversed.

PM Shehbaz Sharif directed the authorities concerned to focus on the revival of education projects in universities across the country and increase the number of programs to bring the education sector at par with international standards.

GOVT DECIDES TO SLASH HEC BUDGET

Resources of Higher Education Commission should be increased significantly and all possible facilities must be provided to teachers and students, PM Shehbaz Sharif further directed authorities.

Earlier, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal clarified that the government would not reduce the budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the upcoming fiscal year.

Chairing a meeting here to review the HEC matters, the minister said the government was allocating more funds than what the HEC demanded.

The clarification comes after it emerged that the federal government was mulling over slashing half of the budget of the High Education Commission (HEC).

The newly established federal government had proposed cutting the budget of HEC by more than half to Rs30 billion for the fiscal year 2022–23, compared to the previous allocation of Rs65 billion.