Daily Times

LAHORE: Administrative and academic affairs of all 11 public sector universities have come to halt as the vice chancellors of seven universities, who were appointed for four-year tenure earlier, have become ‘provisional’ vice chancellors, and the four universities are still without any vice chancellor, as the government has yet to notify provisional vice chancellors appointed by the Lahore High Court.

Sources said that after the LHC verdict, vice chancellors of seven universities – Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) Rawalpindi, Government College University (GCU) Lahore, University of Education (UoE) Lahore, Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan, The Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Government Sadiq Degree College Women University Bahawalpur, Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology Rahim Yar Khan – are confused that whether they can take policy decisions and hold meetings of important statuary bodies i.e. syndicate, academic council etc, and can make appointments and take several other administrative decisions.

A vice chancellor, requesting anonymity, told Daily Times that after LHC verdict, all the vice chancellors were not in a position to run the universities’ affairs. He said that many teachers and employees, who were not happy with administration, were creating uncertainty among students regarding various policies and administrative decisions.

“Recently, a petition has been filed in the LHC, seeking to stop meeting of syndicate, as the vice chancellor of that very university had look-after charge,” he said. Subsequently the university postponed the meeting while the court referred the matter to the chancellor for taking a decision in this regard. However, no meeting of syndicate of that university could be scheduled so far, he added.

Punjab University Academic Staff Association’s (PAUSA) President Prof Dr Sajid Rashid said that PU faculty members were facing problems and were confused that who was their vice chancellor. He said, “The vice chancellor dealt with day-to-day affairs but nowadays we were facing problems.”

However, the Lahore High Court has owned the recommendations of search committee, which means the constitution of the search committee, can be considered legal till the final verdict of the double bench. The search committee was earlier declared illegal by single bench of LHC. The search committee consisted of renowned businessman Syed Babar Ali as its chairman, while Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Nizamuddin and Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi of Lahore University of Management Sciences as its members, and Higher Education Department secretary as it secretary.

The committee, after interviews of candidates, had recommended a panel of three persons for each university to the chief minister. Later, the chief minister shortlisted candidates and after final interviews, the Higher Education Department prepared a final summary for appointment of the vice chancellors to four public sector universities, including the Punjab University, Lahore College for Women’s University (LCWU), University of Sargodha (UoS) and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology Multan.

Sources privy to the situation claimed that during the interviews of the search committee, a member had resisted putting name of a vice chancellor in the panel for a Lahore-based university. They claimed that the candidate was given minimum marks in the interview while the score of his administrative and academic career was higher than other competitors.

Sources said that it was astonishing to know that after the announcement of single bench judgment, acting PU VC Dr Zafar Moeen Nasar, reached Pakistan on December 2, and returned Dubai on December 9. Later, the double bench of Lahore High Court announced its decision on December 19 and Dr Zafar reached Pakistan the same day.

It may be mentioned that Dr Zafar Moeen Nasar has served as interim dean at University of Modern Sciences, Abu Dhabi, and had written reports for international financial institutions including World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IMF and ILO. He has also served for the Pakistan Institute of Development and Economics.