Daily Times

KARACHI: Violating the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, around 5 retired professors and officers are working on contract basis in Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari (BBSUL) for last several years despite that the SC has declared a ban on the re-appointment of retired officers on administrative posts.

The BBSUL’s official record reveals that there are 5 retired officers and professors who have been re-appointed on the key administrative posts including the Registrar, Controller of Examinations, Advisor to Vice Chancellor, Dean of Pharmacy, Director of Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) and Dean of Education’s faculty.

Currently, Professor Dr Farida Azeem Lodhi is working as Registrar of BBSUL and she has also an additional charge of the Dean of Education faculty. She was retired from the College of Education, Karachi in 2013.

Similarly, another retired Professor, Dr Noor Muhammad Memon has been appointed as Controller of Examinations in BBSUL since 2012. He was appointed for the period of three years and his contractual tenure has been completed in 2015. The Chief Minister (CM)’s house however issued a notification in the same year, in which it was stated that Controller of Examinations in BBSUL may perform his duties till further orders.

Amazingly, two years have passed since then but the CM house has not issued any further orders regarding Controller of Examination till yet. While his age is more than 65 years and he also uses hearing aids.

Recently, Additional Registrar of Karachi University, Muhammad Abid has retired but BBSUL’s administration has reappointed him as Advisor to Vice Chancellor on contractual basis without conducting of any selection board.

In addition, a representative team of Pakistan Pharmacy Council has visited the BBSUL’s pharmacy faculty this month and has termed that the faculty to be incomplete. Therefore to deflect the council, BBSUL’s administration appointed Professor Dr Waseem Ahmed as the Dean of the faculty. Professor Dr Waseem Ahmed will join the faculty next month and interestingly he is also taking salary from Karachi University as the faculty member of KU.

The Quality Enhancement Cell is one of the basic departments in BBSUL, which was set up in 2012 as the university has started working in 2011. The QEC is being run by retired Professor Dr Taj Baloch since after its establishment. Dr Taj was reappointed on this administrative post for three years and his tenure has been completed since 2015.

On the other hand, there is no regular Registrar in BBSUL for past three years resulting that the BBSUL’s administration does not have the capacity of issuing degrees for the graduate students. Two batches of the students have completed their studies but those students are still deprived of degrees while convocation ceremony has not been observed since the university set up. Whereas, BBSUL’ Senate meeting has also not been held since 2014.

Professor Dr Akhtar Baloch, Vice Chancellor of BBSUL told Daily Times that BBSUL’s setup is absolutely newborn therefore university is lacking in the faculty and management members. In this connection, advertisements have been published for new hiring.

He said that the VC is authorized to appoint someone under the age of 65 years for the period of 6 months on contract basis without conducting any selection board. The selection of registrar for any public university however is in the jurisdiction of Board and Universities Secretariat across the province.

“We are fulfilling the requirements for senate meeting because the varsity’s syndicate was also incomplete which has been completed and two meeting have been called in last month”, each member of syndicate is also the member of senate and soon after the completion of university’s budget audit the senate meeting will be called.