Islamabad, APR 11: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has clarified that non-payment of salaries to the employees of Islamia University, Bahawalpur (IUB) has nothing to do with the release of HEC funds and the unfortunate situation has arisen due to grave mismanagement of university’s financial resources.

A news item published on Monday completely misrepresented the facts that “IUB is struggling to pay salaries after non-payment of Rs.800 million by HEC” whereas the grant which include salaries has also been released up to 3rd quarter. The amount of 733 million rupees, wrongly mentioned as 800 million, strictly pertains to BISP scholarships for undergraduate students and not the budget heads for payment of salaries.

This BISP funding has been put on hold by HEC because the University has not spent the previous tranches of this scholarship fund for disbursement among needy students rather the funds were diverted for other expenses, which is clearly against the financial rules as well as agreement signed between HEC and IUB.

The matter of non-payment of salaries to the university employees is entirely an administrative matter of the University and has no relevance to the BISP scholarship budget which is solely committed for financially disadvantaged students. Linking unpaid salaries with the release of scholarship funds is an eyewash to deep rooted financial mismanagement which culminated in the crisis IUB currently faces.

The attempt to malign the government by the University for non-release of funds is to cover up its own mismanagement, poor planning and financial control.