Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) administration reinstated three top officials of the university who had been sent on forced leave owing to an inquiry against them.

According to the official notification, the university administration restored QAU Registrar Dr Shafiqur Rahman, Additional Registrar Sabir Khan and Controller Examination Sardar Muhammad Babar Khan with immediate effect.

The notification stated that the officials are repatriated under the Efficiency & Discipline Rules 1973.

The officials were sent on forced leave by the university’s supreme body Syndicate under different allegations. The Syndicate had sent Dr Shafiqur Rahman on forced leave in 2015 but restored him in September 2016. In March 2017, he was sent on leave again.

Shafiqur Rahman was accused of illegal appointments in the university against various cadres. He has also been accused of giving undue favours. The administration had formulated a committee under the chairmanship of selection board member Wajid Rana in 2016. The committee compiled a lengthy report in this regard. After the review done by the report, the Syndicate made its decision to send Rahman on forced leave for an indefinite period to further probe the allegations levelled against him and the Syndicate also demoted him from BPS-21 to BPS-20 as penalty.

According to sources, Rehman had paid the price for his resistance against unlawful appointment of Wajid Rana as QAU adviser by the varsity’s higher administration with the help of a few senior faculty members. The sources added that some faculty members were supporting the administration in this illegal practice.

The varsity administration also published an advertisement in 2016 for seeking candidates against the post of adviser for Rs 0.5 million monthly salary package. Interestingly, the illegibility criterion was matched with the qualification and experience of Wajid Rana. It seemed as if the post was announced only for one person as hardly another candidate could qualify for this. The interviews were conducted accordingly, after which, the university’s finance and planning committee raised objections that the post does not exist in the university calendar hence the induction would be totally illegal and Syndicate turned down the decision accordingly which, an official said, perturbed Rana and he started lobbying against Rehman in presidency and within the university. Sabir Khan was sent on forced leave in May 2017 by the Syndicate for an indefinite period. He had been accused for poor performance in his office as well as biasness in Departmental Promotion Committee in the university. Sabir was restored despite an inquiry process running against him, VC Dr Javed Ashraf said.

Sardar Muhammad Babar Khan was reinstated with a minor penalty that withheld one increment from his salary. He was sent on a leave in May 2017 when an old harassment complaint case against him was reopened by the Syndicate.

During their leaves, all the three officials were getting their salaries on time along with other perks and privileges allotted to them.

As per university rules, such inquiries must be completed within three months and all findings should be released immediately. This was even admitted by Dr Javed Ashraf during a talk with reporters a couple of days ago.

An official regretted that such delays by poor administration caused a loss of millions of rupees from the national exchequer, suggesting that accountability should be held against the responsible for such losses.

Published in Daily Times, September 15^th 2018.