Pakistan, May 1 -- The recent spectacle at the Higher Education Commission, where a performance review reportedly devolved into farce amidst a brewing conflict between two senior executives, serves as yet another potent metaphor for everything that's wrong with the country's higher education sector.

It is a tragedy that HEC has been hogging the way of talented faculty and research scholars who have it in them to win international opportunities for research. The thing is HEC has created an image to the international donors that it is responsible for Pakistani universities and degree-awarding institutions.

Through this misleading narrative, HEC, which in itself was set by a dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pulls all funds to itself and wi...