ISLAMABAD - The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has rejected the false assertions of Dr Tariq Banuri about his removal from the chairman Office due to audit of Research Centres in Karachi.
Dr Tariq Banuri had claimed that he was removed from office since he tried to have audit of the accounts of some Research Centres.
It was also pointed out that Dr Banuri also claimed that the Centres were supervised by Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, which was totally incorrect.
The HEC, in a clarification statement the other day, said that Prof Atta-ur-Rahman had held no administrative position in any research centre or university for the last 20 years.
It was also pointed out that no centres had been operating under his administrative or financial control since the year 2002.
It said the HEC had requested for academic and financial audit of International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences. The requests were strongly welcomed by the Centre in writing.
It said the only requirement of the Centre was in connection with the academic audit that it should be carried out by experts in the relevant fields of chemistry and biology, which was reasonable.
The HEC statement said that an academic audit of the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences was conducted by 11 international experts in 2018. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology and in their report all the 11 foreign experts were unanimous about the high quality of research work being conducted in the Centre, and had recommended for additional financial support to it.
The Ministry of Education objected to the funding formula proposed by HEC for all university research centres and pointed out that it was not suitable, without precedence and that it would badly damage research process, it added.
It said the issue therefore was never about the auditing of accounts or transparency, as has been wrongly portrayed by Chairman HEC in statements to the press.
The HEC had proposed to take away the autonomy and merge the budget of the International Centre of Chemical and Biological Sciences with that of the University of Karachi, it added.
