LAHORE:
A number of faculty members of public sector universities who have not returned to the country after getting scholarships from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) are likely to face action to force them to repay the amount because of the breach of the relevant contract.
According to sources, the HEC had blacklisted such scholars in the past but failed to make them repay the scholarship amount or return to the country. Majority of the blacklisted scholars are from the public sector universities of Punjab.
They said the Punjab University has decided to write a letter to the FIA for recovering millions of rupees from 12 teachers who had not reported back after going abroad on scholarships.
The university administration will also request the foreign and interior ministries to block the CNICs and passports of the absconding teachers.
The sources said the teachers had availed the scholarships worth millions of rupees through the foreign faculty development programme of the HEC but had not returned to the country. They include those who have completed their degrees and some who failed to do so but had not repaid the amount to the universities. A senior official of the Higher Education Commission said the commission had earlier released the names of blacklisted scholars who had received scholarships during the past 18 years.
He said it should also be investigated if such scholars had been selected on merit as some of them had also allegedly received salary while remaining abroad during the scholarship period.
He said the local universities were facing difficulties because of shortage of funds and it was time that they should initiate action to demand the return of the scholarship amount from the blacklisted scholars.
The professors and scholars sign a document committing to teach in their universities for five years after completing their study abroad, but they allegedly start jobs in foreign countries.
A PU spokesman said 56 teachers of the university had received grants worth millions of rupees to do PhD abroad, of whom 12 had not rejoined the institution.
He said seven of the defaulting teachers had availed HEC scholarships and five PU overseas scholarships.
The spokesman said the teachers failing to resume their duty had to pay millions of rupees to the university as per the agreement.
The university has terminated the 12 teachers from service.
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