Higher Education Commission Chairman Prof. Dr. Niaz Ahmad Akhtar held a meeting with Aman Aly Aamir, Minister for Education, Higher Technical and Special Education Department of Gilgit-Baltistan, at the HEC Secretariat in Islamabad. The meeting brought together the country’s apex higher education regulatory body and the provincial education ministry of one of Pakistan’s most geographically distinct and educationally underserved regions to discuss matters of mutual interest and explore avenues for deepening collaboration.
The discussions centred on key areas including higher education development, academic capacity building, and the expansion of educational opportunities available to students across Gilgit-Baltistan. The region, despite its significant natural and strategic importance, has historically faced challenges in accessing the same quality and breadth of higher education infrastructure available in Pakistan’s more urbanized provinces, making federal-provincial engagement on education policy a recurring priority for both the Higher Education Commission and the regional government.
Both sides exchanged views on how existing frameworks and programs can be better leveraged to address the specific academic development needs of Gilgit-Baltistan, including improving access to universities, strengthening the quality of institutions already operating in the region, and identifying new opportunities for students from the area to benefit from national higher education initiatives. The Higher Education Commission has in recent years expanded several of its scholarship, faculty development, and institutional support programs to include universities and students from Gilgit-Baltistan, and the meeting with Minister Aman Aly Aamir is expected to further align those efforts with the provincial government’s own priorities for academic growth.
The meeting reflects an ongoing pattern of engagement between the Higher Education Commission and provincial and regional education ministries aimed at ensuring that Pakistan’s higher education development agenda reaches beyond the major urban centers into regions that have historically been at the margins of academic investment and policy attention. For Gilgit-Baltistan, which is home to a young and growing population with increasing aspirations for quality higher education, stronger coordination with the Higher Education Commission represents an important pathway to expanding the educational infrastructure and opportunities available to its students in the coming years.
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