Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Holding a Philosophy in Doctorate from the University of Wales, Dr Muhammad Ali is now at the helm of affairs of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) at a time when the institution is undergoing several crises owing to poor administrative policies of his predecessor.

Selected by a search committee under a prescribed procedure and criteria, Dr Muhammad Ali joined QAU as vice chancellor last week with high hopes to make some certain sort of strategies to retain previous position of the university. Apart from working experience as Government College University, Faisalabad VC, he also served against other bottom level academic and administrative positions including serving as a lecturer at Lawrence College, Bahauddin Zakariya University and as director of Centre for Undergraduate Studies, director Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology.

He has finished 25 different research projects and has also worked in a project management team for two Higher Education Commission (HEC) funded projects worth Rs 79 million established in the aforementioned institutes. Dr Ali also has publications of 219 research papers in international journals.

Dr Ali is often regarded as a ‘man of fort’ by educationists as they say that he has proficiency to cope with overwhelming issues in a varsity.

The institution suffers from lack of foolproof security and Dr Ali would have to ensure that that this issue is resolved. The main hindrance to maintain security was mass scale encroachments on university land. To make things worse, anyone entering the university could spot cattle and cows crowding one part of the university’s lawns.

According to a fresh report by the Survey of Pakistan (SOP) which is an attached entity of the Ministry of Defense, currently the varsity has a shortfall of 450 acres of allotted land from the government granted on the time of its establishment.

The SOP report submitted to the parliamentary committee recently by the university, stated that initially the university was allotted 1,709 acres of land by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) while currently it lacks 450 acres of that allotted piece.

The documents revealed that 298 acres of land is under occupation of locals living inside the university illegally while 152 acres lack in the CDA layout plan. The list of the institution’s land grabbers also includes the name of former senate chairman Syed Nayyar Bukhari and some other influential land grabbers.

The encroachers not only constructed their homes but they also used a major part of the grabbed land for cultivation which according to the report is 2,076 kanals. The experts said the security situation in QAU could not be idealised until the encroachments not cleared completely.

Moreover, to streamline many other deteriorated things in the system is another challenge for the new VC including to take action in following with an inquiry report against registrar Dr Shafiqur Rahman with charges of illegal appointments and promotions.

One of the many reasons QAU is considered one of the leading institutions of Pakistan is the fact that it offers need-based scholarships to deserving students.

However, since last semester the opportunity seems blurred for such students as, according to the documents, the university made more than 50 percent enrolment on self-finance basis in Bachelor of Sciences programmes this year and gave less preference to merit-based admissions.

Self-finance fee is much higher than merit based programme. The students as well as the university’s faculty are expecting Dr Ali to look into the matter.

Besides, the university has also increased the general semester fee.

Another task for the foreign qualified VC is to make efforts for restoration of Mari Chair provided by Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) for Department of Earth Science with the objective to maintain undergraduate, post graduate and PhD programmes in line with those of leading international universities and to update the programmes according to the requirements of the petroleum industry in consultation with MPCL. The MPCL would provide an annual grant of Rs 3.94 million to the university with the consideration of annual inflation of 15 percent, subject to the continuity of the MOA. But ironically the chair was abolished by the previous VC.

According to a report compiled by the HEC, the last VC made several appointments based on favouritism by giving his blue-eyed faculty members promotions. Many officials in QAU are hoping that the new VC would hold an impartial inquiry in this regard.

There had also been illegal investments from the university’s fund worth more than Rs 500 million to Dubai Islamic Bank, JS Bank and other banks.

Published in Daily Times, December 4^th 2018.