Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The President’s Secretariat has directed the administration of the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) to fix the responsibility of providing wrong information to the presidency regarding the absence of a Syndicate member in three consecutive meetings without intimation and for submitting the resignation of another member.

According to the documents available with Daily Times, the QAU administration had cancelled the membership of Roshan Khurshid Brocha and Dr.Shahid Hassan Siddiqi from the Syndicate citing two separate reasons.

The QAU informed the presidency that Khurshid Brocha did not attend three consecutive meetings of the Syndicate as a result of which her membership had been cancelled.

As per QAU rules whoever fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the Syndicate without intimation to the chair his/her membership would be cancelled.

However, as per documents Brocha did not commit such a violation and attended all the meetings of the decision
making body.

For the other member Dr.Shahid Hassan Siddiqi, the university management told the presidency that he has resigned from the membership.

The administration, after the provision of the said information to the President Secretariat, had proposed new names in place of the dissociated members.

Dr.Raiz Ahmed and Dr.Nadeem Shafiq Malik, were approved as the new members of the Syndicate.

Both Brocha and Siddiqi were startled when they learnt through the university’s letters that their membership of the Syndicate had been cancelled.

They both approached the Chancellor’s Office and justified themselves while rejecting the statements of the varsity regarding their absence and resignation.

As per available documents, the President’s Secretariat directed a probe into the matter. In the letter to the Vice Chancellor QAU, the presidency contended the statements of Dr.Siddiqi in which he complained to the VC that the minutes of the Syndicate meetings would have been changed.

In the complaints, he pointed out many altered agenda items including withdrawal of the alleged sexual harassment by the Controller of Examinations, Sardar M Babar Khan, failure to provide him Terms of Reference of the Committee (TOR) despite the registrar’s promise and the holding of an independent inquiry against the registrar Shafiqur Rehman and many other minutes of the 164th Syndicate meeting which had been changed.

Dr Siddiqi said in the complaints that he just protested against the change in the decided minutes of the Syndicate and did not resign.

After this the QAU’s management was asked to provide the tendered resignation of Dr Siddiqi. However, the university failed to do this as it was a blunder. Then the Chancellor’s Office directed the university for restoring Dr.Siddiqi’s membership of the Syndicate.

In compliance with the directions of the President’s Secretariat, the QAU management through letter number QAU.Reg/2016/2014 restored the membership of Dr.Siddqi till the completion of the existing Syndicate’s tenure.

While informing the Chancellor’s Office the causes of Khurshid Brocha’s membership cancellation, QAU’s VC Javed Ashraf said that she remained absent for three consecutive meetings of the Syndicate. On this the presidency asked for the provision of the members’ attendance sheet in the meetings.

The attendance sheet presented a reverse picture of the claims regarding the absence of Khurshid Brocha submitted by the university’s administration. After this the QAU administration sought excuses for committed blunders and restored the membership of Khurshid Brocha.

When the memberships of both disssociated members had been restored, the Chancellor’s Office directed for the fixation of the responsibility for the violations.

Moreover, the President’s office not only directed the determining of responsibility but also asked to put reservations pointed out by Dr.Siddiqi on the upcoming Syndicate agenda. The meeting of the new formulated Syndicate is scheduled for
March 1.

When contacted, VC Javed Ashraf was not available for his comments. However, the then acting registrar Safia Ahmed said that the university had clarified the concerns of Dr.Siddiqi to the Presidency while admitting that the wrong information regarding Khurshid Brocha’s absence was provided by mistake.

When asked who is responsible for the blunders, she replied: “I don’t know about this though the university held an inquiry regarding this”.