It was October 24, 2019 when the news broke out that a certain Dutch national had been appointed the vice chancellor (VC) of the Government College University (GCU) Lahore – a ‘public’ sector university of Pakistan. On little research, it was found out that Dr Asghar Zaidi (the VC of GCU Lahore) has never ever worked and taught in any university of Pakistan, let alone familiar with its culture. One wonders how his suitability was gauged for the most prestigious and unique university of Pakistan when he has no prior administrative experience of heading any single department in his career. It reminds one of Cyril Radcliffe – a man who never set his foot on the Indian soil and was completely unaware with the Indian demography and culture but was ‘selected’ to draw a boundary line between India and Pakistan. It is still regarded as one of the biggest blunders at the hands of Britishers that caused immense problems and bloodshed during and after the Partition. Dr Zaidi, who is very fond of photo-ops and self-projection for no reason came to sit on the prestigious seat of the VC.
It’s a routine matter that most of the visiting teachers are not paid their due salaries for lapse of several months. The medical allowance of faculty has been cut off leaving them vulnerable in their fight against diseases
Expectations were high to see some real and positive changes. Alas! All were dashed to the ground. Ever since the appointment of the VC nothing constructive has been done for the real betterment of the GCU. Going to Governor House almost every week and carrying the bottles of sanitizers along with the camera-man, indeed compromises the dignity of the VC. Besides this, the GCU is not a venue of commercial market or chamber of commerce where he has desecrated its grace by placing banners every time he does something which in fact, has nothing to do with the GCU. A Vice Chancellor is not supposed to show himself repairing the chairs, watering the plants, distributing face masks and fixing the lights, but he should know some serious business to deal with such as ensuring good governance, improved academic reputation and increased funding for the institution. On the contrary, the VC seems quite satisfied with other trivial businesses.
It’s a routine matter that most of the visiting teachers are not paid their due salaries for lapse of several months. The medical allowance of faculty has been cut off leaving them vulnerable in their fight against diseases. The treasury is running out of funds, but Vice Chancellor is spending public money extravagantly on cricket match just to keep the Higher Education Department happy. What is more poignant is the fact that he has occupied the ‘Day Care Centre’ of GCU and converted its large portion into his residence without even paying the rent to the already depleting treasury of GCU.
Instead of getting connected with the faculty in a real sense, the VC seems to be controlled by outside of GCU. The arbitrary removal of senior professors from departmental and administrative posts and replacing them with junior colleagues is against the traditions of the institution which has left a permanent scar on the traditions of GCU. It has been found that Director, Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC), who was a distinguished professor of Pakistan has been replaced with an inexperienced person. Moreover, the headship of Philosophy department has been snatched from a Fulbright doctoral scholar and given to a non-Ph.D. Similarly, the chairperson of Geography department was replaced in an undignified manner when he had few months left for his retirement. More or less same happenings took place in Physical Education and Psychology departments. Since ages, the chairmanship of Sports Board is held by a relevant senior professor but now it has been given to a junior person. It puts a big question mark on the way of governance. These frequent removals and changes without having any genuine reason and merit has left the faculty scary, and hence are unable to carry out their duties in such an authoritarian and uncertain environment filled with immature and unprofessional tendencies. Such acts and tendencies ultimately backfire.
The VC should know the real needs of GCU and most importantly, its traditions where he completely lacks. Ensuring good governance, increasing funding for research, up-gradation of research labs and laboratories, development of faculty programmes, improving academic reputation and synergy between teachers and administration are all that will help improve the ranking of GCU. Cutting ribbons and posing for photos on every frivolous occasion rarely hides the incompetency of an administrator. Simply putting ‘I Love GCU Selfie Stand’ in the campus will hardly show one’s resolve to put GCU at par with reputed universities. It is need of the time that traditions of GCU must not be compromised and confidence among faculty should be built first, in order to achieve the real goals. Otherwise, the 155 years old public-sector institution of Pakistan will turn into an experimenting laboratory and will have an irreparable loss caused by an imported and inexperienced Vice Chancellor.
The writer is a Freelance writer