Islamabad, The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has asked the government not to cut its budget for the flood relief purpose as it would adversely affect future generations and the economy.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Chairman HEC Dr Javaid A Leghari said the government has decided to cut 50 per cent budget of the departments for flood relief purposes but “HEC must not be treated like other departments as cut in its budget will ruin the future of the next generations.”

Giving details of the budget, Mr Leghari said in the recurring budget for the financial year 2010-11, Rs28 billion was agreed upon by the Ministry of Finance, of which Rs23.2 billion was approved, with reduction of Rs4.8 billion.

He said the government has announced 50 per cent ad hoc increase in the salaries, 15 per cent raise in medical allowance and 15-20 per cent increase in pensions. The impact of these increases was Rs7 billion, which has not been provided to the HEC, he said.

While for the development budget, Rs30 billion were agreed by the Finance Ministry, of which Rs15.7 billion were approved by the Planning Commission. The chairman said HEC was facing default of Rs five billion from 2009-2010. Mr Leghari said HEC would not be able to complete 203 projects at various stages of completion or initiate any new project or scholarships.

The chairman said the universities were demanding 50 per cent increase in salaries and other raises but HEC has not budget for these things, he said. About the degrees issue, the chairman HEC said that 371 degrees have been verified as genuine and 50 as fake while 15 cases were pending with courts. The remaining 599 degrees were in the process of verification, he said. Mr Leghari said 50 degrees were received late from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and sent to the respective universities for verification.

Earlier, the universities were given deadline of August 25 but could not verify the degrees due to unavailability of the required academic credentials.

He said the parliamentarians, who were busy in flood relief activities in their constituencies and unable to provide documents, demanded extension in the deadline. He said HEC has decided to give post-Eid deadline to the universities. The chairman said the Presidency was not pressurising the HEC in verification of degrees.