OUR STAFF REPORTERISLAMABAD – Vice chancellors of various universities, while expressing their apprehension on the proposed bill, have said that any changes in the ordinance of Higher Education Commission should have a broad-based consensus of the stakeholders, which are the universities, the provincial governments and the Chancellors.A special meeting of Executive Committee of Vice Chancellors was held in Islamabad and was attended by majority of vice chancellors from all over the country. The one point agenda of the meeting was the recent HEC Private Amendment Bill. The vice chancellors rejected the proposed bill and showed strong concern and expressed their apprehension that any legislation that takes away the dynamism and autonomy of HEC is going to be damaging to the higher education sector in the country. While improvements in any system are always possible, they were of the unanimous view that HEC is the only institution, which has functioned extremely well and has delivered during the last decade. The VCs noted that the universities have shown tremendous progress in the last decade and the HEC reforms are being followed by other countries as role model.The Vice Chancellors were of the view that the higher education sector has been a growth engine for socio economic development of Pakistan, and it would be extremely unfortunate if at this point legislative steps thwart this achievement by a bill that does not have stakeholders’ consensus and takes away its autonomy.They felt that after the 18th Amendment, changes in the HEC Act should also have the recommendations of the Task Force proposed by the Prime Ministers High Powered Committee. These recommendations should be incorporated in the proposed amendment bill, so that any changes should have broad based consensus of the stakeholders, which are the universities and the higher education sector and the provincial governments and the Chancellors.It was decided that the Executive VC Committee meet the President, Prime Minister, and other law makers to apprise them about the situation.A meeting of all Vice Chancellors, both from public and private sector universities, would be held on February 6 to have a broad based discussion and come up with recommendations.The meeting was attended by HEC Chairman Dr. Javaid Laghari, Acting Executive Director Engr. Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, Dr. Nasser Ali Khan Member HEC/ Vice Chancellor Haripur University, Dr. Nasir Jamal Khattak Kohat, University of Science & Technology (KUST) Kohat, Engr. Ahmed Farooq Bazai, Vice Chancellor Balochistan University of Information Technology Engineering and Management Sciences Quetta, Sultana Baloch, Vice Chancellor Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University (SBK) Quetta, Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran, Vice Chancellor University of the Punjab Lahore, Dr. Sabiha Mansoor, Vice Chancellor Lahore College for Women University Lahore,  Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, Vice Chancellor Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Prof. Dr. Najma Najam, Vice Chancellor Karakoram International University  Gilgit, Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Vice-Chancellor University of Agriculture (UAF)  Faisalabad, Prof Dr Mohammad Nizamuddin, Vice-Chancellor University of Gujrat, Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar, Vice Chancellor The Islamia University Bahawalpur and  Prof. Dr. Ihsan Ali, Vice-Chancellor Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan.