ISLAMABAD: The Academic Staff Association (ASA) of Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) wrote an open letter to express their grievances with Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed. According to an open letter available with the Daily Times, it states that the Executive Council (EC) of the Academic Staff Association in its meeting took a serious note over the derogatory behaviour of the HEC chairman with a member of the syndicate of QAU in its recent meeting held on April 12th. The letter mentioned that the decision to demote faculty members including Dr Waheed Iqbal was totally unjust under the rules and regulations whereas it was also stated that this decision was taken on the pressure of HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed. The letter wrote by ASA President Dr Asif Ali states that the 167th meeting of the syndicate is absolutely illegal and is not only a brutal example of transgression into the institutional autonomy of Pakistan’s top-ranking university but also a case of willful abuse of the authority by an ordinary member of the QAU Syndicate by virtue of his position as HEC chairman. The letter also leveled several allegations on the HEC chairman by quoting executive council of ASA as they considered that the HEC chairman purposefully bulldozed the proceedings of the syndicate in an attempt to have decisions of his own choice on selected agenda items in total disregard to the rules of business of the syndicate. Furthermore, they declared the HEC chairman role as partial and biased. While talking to the Daily Times Dr Asif Ali said, “We consider the role of HEC chairman in recent meeting of varsity’s syndicate as a violation of rules and exceeding the powers”. He said further, “Initially we have wrote the letter to HEC chairman and all syndicate members but if the HEC chairman will not change his behaviour then we would be forced to take up this matter before the prime minister of Pakistan, as he is the controlling authority ofthe commission”. The letter also contains a warning that the faculty does not want to retaliate the way the HEC chairman deserves but would prefer to achieve its legitimate goals enshrined in the statutes through argument, logic and reason and expects that from now onwards rules, reason and wisdom would prevail otherwise the faculty reserves the right to protest and go to any extent. The HEC chairman and spokesperson of the commission were contacted several times but they were unavailable to comment.