President Arif Alvi appointed heads of three federal universities including International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Friday. According to the notification issued by Federal Education & Professional Training Ministry, Dr Masoom Yasinzai, Dr Muhammad Ali and Dr Ziaul Qayyum have been appointed as vice chancellors of IIUI, QAU and AIOU respectively. The notification stated that the appointments have been made with approval of Arif Alvi. According to the rules, the president of the country is the chancellor of all federal public sector varsities. The three slots become vacant earlier this month when all heads completed their four years’ service term. The Education Ministry formed a search committee a couple of months ago with the approval of Prime Minister Imran Khan which started selection for these positions since then. The committee listed Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood as head while Federal Education Secretary Arshad Mirza, Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri, Dr Sania Nishtar, Salman Ghani and Syed Javed Hassan as members. The committee shortlisted over 100 candidates for thee posts. Last week, it forwarded nine names to the chancellor for his consent. The names sent for the IIUI rector post included Dr Yasinzai, Dr Abbas Chaudhry and Dr Zabita Shinwari. The three shortlisted candidates by the chancellor for the post of QAU VC were Dr Ali, Dr Fazal Ahmed Khalid and Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan. Similarly, the committee picked three names for AIOU VC post which were Dr Qayyum, Professor Dr Ali and Professor Dr Yasinzai. The committee forwarded all names in sequence while the president selected the top one of them for each institution. Hailing from Balochistan, Dr Yasinzai appointed for IIUI has a PhD in Biochemistry. This is his four consecutive term as VC as before this he served at Balochistan University, QAU and IIUI against the post of VC and rector. His selection raised many eyebrows. Educationists criticised his appointment saying there were other highly distinguished scholars in the country who could have been selected in his place. Dr Ali who has now a PhD in Biological Sciences was the fourth vice chancellor of Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF). The final candidate selected for AIOU VC post is Dr Qayyum, who has a background in Information Technology. He has served as Gujrat University VC and Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi VC. Sources said that the formulation of the search committee was under question as most of the included members were not much qualified for the selection procedure. The sources further revealed that these appointments have not been made on merit. For instance, a highly informed official said that, Dr Ali is the nephew of Syed Babar Ali who is a part of the committee and also an eminent businessman. Similarly, Dr Qayyum was removed from AAUR over financial embezzlement allegations. AIOU is a distance learning education providing institute and for this a specific person who has such experience, could run its post of VC. Published in Daily Times, October 27th 2018.