ISLAMABAD: After a delay of about seven months, the government on Tuesday appointed a full-time chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the appointment of Professor Dr Mukhtar Ahmed who will head the commission for four years. A notification in this regard was also issued on Tuesday.

The HEC had been working without a permanent head since August 26, 2013, when the first four-year term of Dr Javaid Laghari ended. Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, the vice chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, was given acting charge on November 9, 2013.

Professor Ahmed has already been working as the executive director of the HEC since February 2013. The ED serves as the chief executive officer and the principal accounting officer of the commission.

Before joining the HEC, Prof Ahmed, who has done PhD from the University of California, USA, also served as the deputy director general, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in Rabat, Morocco.

An official of the Ministry of Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education requesting not to be identified told Dawn that a search committee headed by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal interviewed 19 candidates on February 10 and 11 and sent three names to the prime minister for appointing anyone of them as the HEC chief.

“The three candidates were: Prof Mukhtar Ahmed, Rector National Textile University Faisalabad Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad and former vice chancellor Karakorum International University, Giglit, Dr Najma Najam,” he said.

However, the prime minister rejected the names and reconstituted a new search committee. But Mr Iqbal refused to chair the new committee. As a result, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif was nominated as the head of the committee.

The new committee announced that the interviews would be held on March 18 and 19 but later cancelled the process because of the engagements of the committee members. The new date for the interviews could not be announced, he said.

In the meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday ordered the government to appoint the chairperson of the HEC within 15 days. But just 24 hours after the court directions, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif revisited his initial decision of rejecting the three names sent by the committee headed by Ahsan Iqbal and approved the appointment of Prof Ahmed as the HEC chief, he said.

“Although it was the right of the prime minister to reject the candidates for the post, it seemed that he (PM) was initially misguided by some elements due to which he rejected the three names selection by Mr Iqbal,” he said.

An official of the HEC on the condition of anonymity added that because of the appointment of Prof Mukhtar as the chairperson, the post of the executive director had fallen vacant.

“There are two possibilities. Either the post of ED will be advertised again or Dr Zabta Khan Shinwari of the Quaid-i-Azam University will be considered for it.” Dr Shinwari was on number two of the list prepared for the appointment of the ED when Prof Ahmed was made ED in February 2013, he added.

However, initially, the acting charge of the post will be given to one of the members of the HEC Commission. There are currently 11 members of the 18-member commission, he said.