ISLAMABAD - The Finance Ministry on Saturday verbally assured the officials of Higher Education Commission (HEC) that the allocations for the fourth quarter of the current financial yeear would be released in time According to officials of the commission, they got a phone call of an official of the Finance Ministry to assure them that the funds would be released very soon. Earlier, about Rs9 billion of recurring budget and Rs2.6 billion allocations for development projects of universities were put on hold by the Ministry of Finance in the pretext of devolution of the commission. The finance department of the Commission had informed the universities on Friday about the decision to make them prepared for the expected delays in the release of salaries if the ministry refused to approve the file which had been withheld with objections that the matter of devolution was in process thus the funds could not be released till the situation got clear. Ministry of Finance Secretary Waqar Masood told The Nation that funds were not stopped at all and all the allocations would be released in time.