PESHAWAR: Welcoming the move to devolve the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the treasury and opposition members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday urged the government to ensure comprehensive planning for the promotion of higher education to facilitate the students.

Initiating the debate on the devolution of HEC, Israrullah Khan Gandapur of the Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao said the political parties that supported the 18th Amendment and later started issuing statements against the devolution of the HEC had opened a Pandora’s box on the issue. He said the parties should not give the impression that they are divided on the issue and were unclear about the future of the HEC.

Leader of the Opposition Akram Khan Durrani termed the passage of the 18th Amendment a victory of the political parties and said it was achieved after hard work. He said the progress was impossible without education. After the 18th Amendment, he said, the education and health departments were being given to provinces where eminent personalities would run the affairs of these departments. He said the HEC should be asked how much funds it had released to the private and public sector universities. He said the HEC could not establish standard engineering and law universities in Jalozai during the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government even after hundreds of kanals of land was allotted for the purpose due to the fact that education was under the federal government’s control.

PML-N parliamentary leader Pir Sabir Shah said the devolution would affect the research work in universities. Javed Abbasi of the PML-N said the devolution of power was the need of the hour but it would create some problems in the beginning that needed to be tackled with care. Abdul Sattar Khan of the PML-N said his party supported provincial autonomy but all decisions should be taken with extreme care. The debate could not be completed and Speaker Kiramatullah Khan had to adjourn the session till Friday when Nighat Orakzai of PML-Q pointed to the lack of quorum.The news