Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is paying millions of rupees to International Islamic University (IIU) Islamabad faculty members in violation of its Tenure Track System (TTS) rules.

According to documents available with Daily Times, around 28 faculty members, including assistant professors, associate professors, professors are serving in various departments of IIU on TTS.

In 2003, the HEC had introduced the TTS in the country’s universities to enhance their research productivity. However, it was not compulsory for universities to adopt the new system.

The IIU Islamabad adopted the TTS system in 2008. Currently, there are two systems in the universities. One is the regular Basic Pay Scale (BPS) system, while the other is the model TTS system.

As per TTS rules of HEC, only a ‘tenured’ faculty member can assume responsibility in an administrative capacity such as vice chancellor, director research, dean of a faculty and head of departments and others. Minimum required period to be a ‘tenured’ faculty member is six years service on tenure track. After completion of six year service tenure, the overall performance of such a faculty member will be assessed and only eligible candidates will be declared as ‘tenured’ faculty members.

The documents reveal that Dr Muhammad Arshad Malik is serving as assistant professor on TTS system. Dr Malik was appointed as chairman of Bio Technology Department against TTS rules. Moreover, two senior professors- Prof Dr ZM Khalid and Dr Asif Mir – were superseded by appointing Dr Malik.

According to the documents, Dr Malik has been appointed as acting chairman for three years. A faculty member wishing anonymity said that it was very surprising that the authorities had appointed Dr Malik for three years. “Usually, the acting charge given in the absence of the actual official is not for such a long period,” he said.

Dr Manzoor Khan has been serving as assistant professor on tenure track duration for less than six years. However, he has been appointed as the International Relations and Political Sciences Department chairman.

Dr Ihsan Ul Haq is an assistant professor on tenure track. He is also serving as the Iqra College of Technology (IIUI) Islamabad principal.

Another assistant professor, Tariq Javed, is serving as the students affairs director, which is a purely administrative post.

Beside these officials, some other TTS faculty members also served on administrative slots without being ‘tenured’ for many years. However, they have only been declared tenured faculty members this year.

According to the HEC rules, the minimum monthly salary of a TTS professor is Rs 292,500; associate professor Rs 195,000; and for assistant professor Rs 130,000, with annual increments of Rs 14,300, Rs 11,375 and Rs 8,937 respectively. Such salaries are directly financed by the HEC itself.

It is clearly mentioned in the commission’s TTS rules that “if a faculty member assumes an administrative post in the university, then the period for which he/she remains on that post shall not be counted toward his/her TTS service on tenure or tenure-track and during that period he/she will not be eligible to draw TTS salary.”

In a written reply to Daily Times, the HEC said: “In the cases of some faculty members, who worked on administrative posts, such as registrar (and others), the duration of their placement on those posts have been deducted from their TTS service.” However, the commission did not respond when asked whether it had stopped the salaries of such officials as per rules or not.

Moreover, as per sources in the IIU, the commission also has not deducted the durations of such appointments as it has claimed.

Interestingly, the commission admitted that the universities still had some tenure track faculty members as deans and heads of departments because they did not have any other option. “This is being done to avoid any disturbance/loss in the academic activity. However, they are on the look out to have tenured faculty to fill these posts,” the commission said.

While admitting the facts, IIU Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai said that the appointments had been made due to acute shortage of staff for such slots. When asked about violation of HEC rules, he said: “It is direly needed to revive and amend some HEC rules to address such matters.”