18 public colleges in Punjab that were granted autonomy by the boards of governors (BoGs) in 2010 have had their autonomy withdrawn with the approval of the Punjab Cabinet.
18 public colleges in Punjab that were granted autonomy by the boards of governors (BoGs) in 2010 have had their autonomy withdrawn with the approval of the Punjab Cabinet. When the four-year BS programmes there began, 26 public sector colleges in the province were given autonomy.
The remaining 18 now hold the same position they did prior to their autonomy, with the Higher Education Department (HED) managing their administrative and financial affairs rather than the BoGs. Eight of them were later converted into universities. The policy change was approved by the Punjab Cabinet at its 8th meeting, which was held on December 29, 2022.
The cabinet, working with the finance department, S&GAD, law department, and PA department, had passed the summary that had been properly approved by the chief minister under Agenda No. 24, according to the source.
The HED also revoked the Assan Assignment Accounts (AAA) that 18 colleges had opened in 2019 to manage staff salaries and non-salary budget, the report stated.
The HED requested that the financial department transfer the first, second, and third quarter funds of the fiscal year 2022–2023 from the colleges’ Assan Assignment Accounts (AAA) to the corresponding district account offices for handling under regular salary through the Office of the Accountant General, Punjab.
The decision was made following a 12-year battle by the Punjab Professor and Lecturers Associations (PPLA), which had resisted the autonomy of the colleges for a variety of reasons.
The PPLA leadership began to oppose the creation of BoGs in 2011–12, branding it as the “privatisation of higher education.” Up until 2013, the HED had been unable to establish the BoG in any of the independent colleges. As a result, the ordinance that granted the colleges autonomy expired three years after it was passed. According to reports, the PPLA representatives also filed a writ petition (19501/2010) in the superior judiciary against BoGs, which was ultimately successful for the association.
Ittehad-e-Asatiza, Pakistan’s central leaders praised the development as a significant victory against privatisation and the autonomy of public sector colleges. Prof. Arif said none of the colleges had got financial and administrative autonomy because no BoG was functioning in any college and they were autonomous only on papers.
The finance department wrote to the HED to form independent accounts under the title AAA among 18 colleges for allocation and approval of an independent budget.
More than 2,500 college teachers staged protest rallies in the divisional headquarters against the opening up of the account. It included a 37-day-long sit-in in front of the Civil Secretariat in 2022. The finance department had endorsed the PPLA stance and suggested withdrawal of notification under the ordinance. But the provincial cabinet was asked to approve the proposal in its meeting on Dec 29.
The 18 colleges whose autonomous status from BoGs was reverted by the provincial cabinet include the Govt Graduate College for Women, Sargodha, Govt Graduate College for Women, Sahiwal, Govt Graduate College for Women, Gulberg, Lahore, Govt Graduate College for Women, Samanabad, Lahore, Govt Graduate College for Women, DG Khan, Govt Graduate College for Women, Cooper Road, Lahore, Govt Graduate College for Women, Satellite Town, Gujranwala, Govt Graduate College for Science, Wahdat Road, Lahore, Govt Gordon College, Rawalpindi, Govt Graduate Ambala Muslim College, Sargodha, Govt Graduate College, Jhelum, Govt Graduate College, Samanabad, Faisalabad, Govt S. E. Graduate College, Bahawalpur, Govt Murray Graduate College, Sialkot; Govt Graduate College (Boys), Satellite Town, Gujranwala, Govt Graduate Civil Lines College, Lahore and Govt Graduate College, Sahiwal.