Claim: Lt. General (retired) Moazzam Ejaz has been appointed as the new chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan.
Fact: The claim is misleading; Ejaz was not appointed as chairman of the HEC, but as the Chairperson of the National Technology Council (NTC).
On 6 August 2024, a Facebook page Verified Pakistan posted an image (archive) with the caption, “The Government has appointed Lt. Gen. (R) Moazzam Ejaz, HI (M), as the new Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), effective from July 29, 2024”.
Columnist and political commentator Orya Maqbool Jan also posted the same image (archive) on X with an Urdu caption. When translated into English, the caption states, “From today, this gentleman has been made in charge of thousands of professors, PhD scholars, and millions of students pursuing higher education in Pakistan’s 277 universities across Pakistan. Now every year there will be factional nominations from the country for the Nobel Prize”.
Fact or Fiction?
To investigate the claim, Soch Fact Check used the keywords “HEC chairman, General Moazzam Ejaz” on Google search but could not find anything substantial. However, a news report published by the English newspaper Dawn on 7 August 2024 reads that “HEC chairman gets one-year extension”. According to the report, after approval from the Prime Minister’s office, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed got a one-year extension after completing his two-year tenure. The report made no mention of Lt-Gen (r) Ejaz.
In a news report on 7 August, 24 News HD also mentioned that the “Establishment Division officially issued a notification regarding the reappointment of Dr Mukhtar Ahmed as the Chairman of HEC, following approval from the Prime Minister”. The one-year tenure will commence on 30 July 2024, the report added.
HEC Pakistan posted about the reappointment on their official Instagram account, on 7 August, congratulating Dr Mukhtar. Moreover, Dr Ahmed also posted about his reappointment on his official X account on the same day.
Soch Fact Check also reached out to HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed who confirmed to us on WhatsApp that the news about Lt-Gen (r) Ejaz’s appointment as HEC chairman is fake. He clarified that Lt-Gen (r) Ejaz is currently the rector of the National University of Technology (NUTECH), Islamabad, and will serve as the Chairperson of the National Technology Council (NTC) for four years, starting from 29 July 2024. The NTC is a body delegated by the HEC to regulate Technology-related programs in Pakistan.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that news of the appointment of Lt-Gen (r) Ejaz as the new chairman of the HEC, is misleading.
Virality
The post received 800 likes, 280 comments and 185 shares on Facebook. It was also shared here, here and here.
Orya Maqbool’s post on X garnered 4,29,000 views, 11,000 likes and 6,000 reposts. The archived versions can be seen here and here.
Conclusion: Lt. General ( r ) Moazzam Ejaz has not been appointed as the new Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman. Instead, he has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the National Technology Council.
—
Background cover image: HEC Pakistan
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com