Daily Times

LAHORE: The Punjab government has appointed former Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) nazim as Punjab University’s vice chancellor after religious and political organisations influenced his appointment, Daily Times learnt on Monday.

According to an appointment letter available with Daily Times, the Punjab government following the instructions of Supreme Court, appointed Dr Niaz Ahmed as the new PU VC. However, sources told Daily Times that after strong influence of the main office bearer of religious and political parties, the Punjab government awarded extra marks to Dr Niaz Ahmed during the interview just to please the religious political parties.

Sources also told this scribe that extra marks were awarded on special instructions of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif who wants to grab political sympathies in upcoming elections.

According to sources, the Vice Chancellor Search Committee’s result academic marks of Dr Ahmed were less than top two candidates as former PU VC Dr Zakaria Zakir was on top slot, Punjab Univeristy College of Information Technology Principal Dr Mansoor Sarwar was on second position and Dr Ahmed was on third position. But the results totally shifted after the interview as Dr Ahmed was awarded 82 marks, Dr Zakaria 80 and Dr Mansoor Sarwar was awarded 78 marks.

Every time a VC is selected, his political background is observed and if he/she is found having any sort of political background, then extra marks are definitely not given. But in case of Dr Ahmed, it was totally ignored that he was an active member of IJT who had been accused of supporting Taliban in past.

It is pertinent to mention that the seat of a permanent VC has been vacant since former permanent VC Dr Mujahid Kamran’s tenure was completed in 2016. Since then, the government had appointed three temporary VCs including Dr Zafar Moeen Nasir, Dr Zakaria Zakir and Dr Nasira Jabeen.

In a hearing of the case about appointment of VC, the Higher Education Department presented the name of Dr Ahmed to the SC. However, another interesting fact is that his appointment letter was held by Punjab governor after the CM sent a summary to the governor on the last day of Punjab Government on May 31. But the appointment letter was issued on June 1 after the time period of Punjab government ended. PU Teaching Community had already opposed the decision by demanding the government to appoint a neutral VC who must not have any political background.

Dr Ahmed has been the president of Tanzeem-e-Asatiza, JI teachers wing during 2003-04 and his nephew Allah Bakhsh Leghari was Najim Jamia and he used to live with him on the campus. Dr Ahmed was PU Adviser Student Affairs and during his tenure, offices of IJT were opened in all hostels and also in the university’s main corridor.

Published in Daily Times, June 5^th 2018.