and textbook revival in the education system of Pakistan. His articles and publications are repeatedly published in both technical and non-technical journals, as well as in local international media Hoodbhoy widely writes about the role and modernisation of the Pakistani military, particularly defence budget spending by the Pakistani government on the military. Hoodbhoy has criticized what he sees as the merger of science with religion, especially in Pakistan; by contrast he pointed out Iran, whose religious leaders have kept science and religion separate. In 2003 he was a signatory of the Humanist Manifesto. Hoodbhoy criticized the partition of India, calling it an "unspeakable tragedy" that "separated people who at one time could live together in peace". Hoodbhoy has criticized the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) for pursuing "a drive to achieve numbers rather than quality". He believes that because of "policies that reward authors of research articles and PhD supervisors with cash and promotions", universities in Pakistan have "turned into factories producing junk papers and PhDs." He has been a harsh critic of the performance of HEC since 2003 when it was led by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, and the issue has led to heated debates in Pakistan's news media. In 2009 Hoodbhoy came into conflict with Atta-ur-Rahman, an organic chemist, over the Higher Education Commission (HEC). In the United States, the journal Nature published an article on the successes and failures of the HEC. Hoodbhoy wrote to complain about, among other things, the article's failure to mention (what Hoodbhoy called) "the billions wasted on mindless prestige mega-projects". In the debate on the HEC, other Pakistani academics and scientists such as Adil Najam, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and Atta-ur-Rehman defended the HEC while disagreeing with most of Hoodbhoy's criticisms. The administrative competency of the HEC was called into question by Hoodbhoy who described its achievements as "dismal". Hoodbhoy supported his arguments against HEC's productivity, that in the case of UESTP-France convention in Karachi, out of an expected faculty strength of between 450 and 600, no French faculty or administrative staff actually arrived. At the television debate, Hoodbhoy questioned the statistics used to support the positive appraisal of HEC's activities in a series of communications between Hoodbhoy and HEC chairman Atta-Ur-Rehman. It was claimed by the latter that in mathematics, Pakistani authors received 20% more citations than the worldwide average. Hoodbhoy questioned this on several grounds including the number of self-citations these publications received