Lt-Gen (r) Moazzam Ejaz appointed HEC chairman

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is misleading.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team corroborated the claim with any actual notifications from the government.

Multiple posts from users on social media platform X on August 6, 2024, claimed that Lieutenant General (retired) Moazzam Ejaz was appointed as the new Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman. However, he was actually appointed by the HEC as the chairman of the National Technology Council (NTC).

Lt-Gen (r) Ejaz is currently serving as the rector of the National University of Technology, Islamabad.

HOW IT STARTED

On August 6, the Facebook page of news and media website Verified Pakistan Recorder posted a graphic with the following text: “Government appoints Lt-Gen (r) Moazzam Ejaz as the new HEC chairman”.

The post gained 778 likes and was shared 183 times.

Political commentator Orya Maqbool Jan also posted the same graphic on social media platform X with the caption, “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 relentless nominations from the country for the Nobel Prize.”

His post received over 421,000 views.

Another X user posted also shared the same graphic, saying, “Now only the leading of mosques is left. This too should be given to him.”

This post received more than 23,000 views.

The same claim was posted by many others as can be seen here, here, here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and because it concerned the alleged appointment of a former military officer to the body governing higher education and thus a matter that impacts the general public.

An investigation to corroborate the alleged development yielded an August 7, 2024, news report from leading English publication Dawn with the title: “HEC chairman gets one-year extension”.

According to the report, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed received a one-year extension as the HEC chairman on August 6 after completing his two-year term. The report made no mention of Lt-Gen (r) Ejaz.

Reaching out to the HEC via Dawn.com correspondent Irfan Sadozai yielded an August 5 notification from the commission that the HEC chairman had appointed the former army official as the NTC chairman for four years from July 29, 2024.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING

The claim that Lt-Gen (r) Moazzam Ejaz was appointed as the HEC chairman is misleading.

He was instead appointed by the incumbent HEC chairman as the chairperson of the National Technology Council. The omission of the details of his actual appointment has the potential to misguide the public and engender resentment and negativity towards the government and military for appointing former army officials to civilian institutions.

Evidence and References

August 7, 2024, Dawn news report:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1850545/hec-chairman-gets-one-year-extension

August 5, 2024, HEC notification:
https://imgur.com/RypZCTF