“I have to spend two more years on an unwanted job that is killing my skills”, Dr. Shuja (fake name) said this with heartbreaking voice. During a university-related trip to his university I met him during a refreshment break. Shuja completed his PhD from a well reputed European university on HEC scholarship in Chemical Engineering. “My PhD is in alternative fuel and during thesis writing my two of research paper had been published in impact factor journals. I wanted to join the corporate sector where I could utilize and enrich my skills very well but I am teaching in an engineering university for three years.” I asked him why he is associated with the teaching and not joining energy sector. He said “there are no appropriate companies in Pakistan directly working in my area of specialization. I had many offers from abroad but according to my bonding with HEC I have to spend five years in Pakistan.” I tried to console him “teaching is also a prophetic job. You must think that you are training the generation”……. He looked at me with empty eyes and said “you are right. Teaching is a very good profession and I have taught during my PhD studentship as well but my skills are not made for teaching. I am getting beyond my original area of expertise. During teaching mostly you are out of touch to the real time solutions of current industry developments.” I advised him “so why don’t you discuss this problem to HEC that you are reaching beyond your field?” He smiled meaningfully and said “Sir my father’s property of eight million rupees is pawned in HEC so I am not in position to ague on HEC.”
After this conversation I started working on getting information on HEC’s scholarship system. This system was initiated by Dr. Attaurrehman back in 2003 and around 35,000 Pakistani students are studying in different countries on HEC scholarship. HEC has a budget for scholarship amount 800 million rupees. According to HEC statistics, 5934 scholars were awarded PhDs from world’s best universities funded by HEC but among all of them 126 scholars breached the HEC agreement to come back Pakistan and serving country. Due to this, HEC tightened the rules for awarding HEC scholarship for Pakistani students.
Among other rules and regulations, the candidates are required to submit the documents of their property worth at least 6 million rupees. “This scholarship is not for the poor students that HEC claims” Usman argued on it who has completed PhD from Australia and serving in another university in Pakistan “if you don’t have property of 6 million rupees who can’t qualify this scholarship” he added “and you can’t sale or transfer your property during three years of scholar’s PhD studentship and 5 years during serving Pakistan. This is very unfair because the family of such scholars is bound for eight years”. I replied to him “but you know HEC took this initiative because more than 126 PhDs got missing. The government spends millions of rupees on PhD programs and provide comfort to the scholar so this is their ethical responsibility to respect the obligation” he waited for a second and said “do you know most of students submit the properties of their parents, uncles, aunties of other close relatives? This obligation mostly suffers not the person who breaches the obligation but the family members who are bound for more than eight years… and mostly they are from the middle class.”
Usman also mentioned that corruption is all over the procedure of this system. The HEC asks for evaluation report by the Mukhtiarkar, an officer of board of revenue. They ask thousands of bribery for evaluation. I paid around 40 thousand rupees for actual price of my father’s property worth 10 million rupees. This is its market value but the Mukhtiarkar initially said to my father that the value of your property is 2 million only but after getting bribe he increased its value to 10 million rupees.
Hence this is not the discussion of corruption in the scholarship process but our motive is to express our serious concern about the wastage of world class researchers and academics in Pakistan.
The PhDs who are coming from abroad after completing their education are mostly related to engineering, technology and other areas of pure sciences but among most of them fewer can get the right jobs in Pakistan related to their expertise. What they can only get is a job in teaching at the universities. The HEC had a policy to appoint them in the public universities at around 130 thousand rupees per month salary but due to great influx of foreign qualified PhD, HEC softened the rule to serve in any private university as per university’s pay scale.
The matter of concern is their waste of genuine expertise. They are not primarily made for teaching. They can better serve the country if they go to the corporate sector in engineering, telecommunication, chemicals and pharmaceuticals but unfortunately our industry is not as mature enough as to carry this high talent. Consequently, after unsuccessful attempt to get into the industry these intellectuals go to universities and during five years of their job they leave behind the real time expertise and consequently the ever-growing new technology obsoletes this expertise.
As a part of academia, in my circle I noticed dozens of foreign qualified PhDs are working in different universities in Karachi and believe that same problem could be observed in other major cities. I personally know around 30 PhDs in Economics and Business Administration. They can serve the national economy and manage the national systems but their skills and expertise are unattended by the policy makers. They don’t have any plan to accommodate them in proper places. Our observation depicts that most of foreign qualified PhDs are working in academics with less motivation and suffering from the discomfited feelings. Undoubtedly the role of HEC in promoting PhDs from abroad is much appreciated but we should have right strategic plans and defined fields to fix them on right crown otherwise we will keep continue to waste our outstanding talent.

Dr Munir Hussain

Associate Professor/Director QEC at Mohammad Ali Jinnah University