The Finance Ministry has released Rs 7.7 billion funds of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) while petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Lahore High Court (LHC), challenging devolution of the HEC. According to a letter of the Finance Ministry to the HEC, Rs 7.7 billion have been released. The funds were earlier withheld by the ministry in view of possible devolution of the institution. The HEC officials say the released money is the installment of the fourth quarter which will be used to pay salaries of the HEC employees until June this year.