ISLAMABAD: The contradiction continued in National Assembly body’s recommendation to make the President of Pakistan the chairman of the Board of Governors, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), as Education Ministry has preferred the Army chief for the slot, documents show.
Education Minister Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali will soon introduce a bill to amend the NUML Ordinance in the National Assembly in which the chief of the Army staff has been proposed as the NUML BoG chairman.
The Chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education, Abid Sher Ali, says he will protest in every possible manner while the education minister says he was not bound to obey the recommendations of the committee.
The status of NUML remained ambiguous right from its establishment as a university. It was not clear whether it was an Army-run university or a public sector institution because Pervez Musharraf was occupying the seat of the President of Pakistan and the name of the COAS was mentioned in the NUML’s BoG meetings since his era, as Musharraf happened to be the Army chief as well.
In May last year, the NA education committee had directed the NUML to put its house in order and notify the name of the President of Pakistan as the BoG chairman and remove the name of chief of the Army staff from there.
The Education Ministry moved its proposed amendments to the Law Division for vetting. A bill to amend the NUML Ordinance was to be introduced in the National Assembly during the current session and it was included in the agenda items but could not be introduced because of technical reasons. The amendment bill says that a new clause 2 (ba) shall be added after clause 2 (b) of the ordinance: “The chairman means Chairman of the Board.” The bill further says that the BoG shall consist of the chief of Army staff or his nominee who shall be the chairman of the board. Previously, there was no mention of the chairman in the ordinance because in federal area the chairman BoG/ chancellor of a university happens to be the president and in provinces he happens to be the governor.
As the NUML is stuffed with retired Army officers, the bill introduced by the Education Ministry, violating the HEC criteria, says that the rector of the university shall be a senior serving or retired Army officer with sufficient experience to ensure the discipline of educational environment visualised for the university.
The original ordinance mentions nowhere that the NUML will be run by the Army and instead says all students without any discrimination of colour, caste and creed will be enrolled.
