Teachers at GCU Lahore resist likely appointment of foreign national as VC

Author: Staff Report

The Higher Education Department (HED) has moved a summary to appoint a foreign national as the vice chancellor (VC) of the historical Government College University (GCU) Lahore and this move has invited severe criticism by the academicians and university’s teachers, it has been learnt.

According to the sources in HED Punjab, the Vice Chancellor Search Committee has recommended Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi as the top candidate for the post of Vice Chancellor of Government College University (GCU) Lahore. The summary has been moved to the Chief Minister in this regard.

Asghar Zaidi is the Professor of Social Gerontology at Seoul National University, South Korea and a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, the UK. However, he had no administrative experience of teaching experience in Pakistani universities. According to the sources, Dr Asghar Zaidi was Dutch national and Dutch law restricts dual citizenship. Talking to Daily Times, university teachers said that the vice chancellor is a highly sensitive post and appointment of foreign national or dual national is apparently against the orders/guidelines of Honorable Supreme Court. They said that they are not against any person but it is observed that foreign national didn’t have stakes in Pakistan, and they often returned back soon.

Prof Asghar Zaidi on top of the list recommended by search committee

A teacher, seeking anonymity, said that the foreign national appointments should be subject to security clearance. “It seems that the government now wants to appoint the ‘imported’ people in educational institutions after appointing ‘imported’ people in the finance ministry, State Bank of Pakistan and other key institutions of the country,” a senior teacher of GCU said. It has also been learnt that for the University of Education (UoE), Lahore, the Search Committee had signed off the panel with Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha on the top of the list. Prof Pasha is currently serving as Vice Chancellor of the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS). Sources said that the department is planning to move the summary for the UoE after the summary for GCU Lahore was received back as Prof Talat Naseer Pasha is also in the panel for GCU, Lahore. A spokesperson of Punjab Higher Education Commission said that the process is about to complete and the VCs will be announced very soon by the department.