Structural changes: Appointments at IIUI challenged

Petitioners challenge creation of new posts and appointments of FMS dean, three others


Rizwan Shehzad July 05, 2016
It is also prayed that the respondents should be directed to immediately abolish all the unwarranted and illegal departments. . PHOTO: IIU.EDU.PK

ISLAMABAD: Some professors at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) have challenged the structural changes and appointments in the university’s Faculty of Management Sciences (FMS).

The petitioners have challenged the appointment of the IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai as Dean of the faculty and three assistant professors in the Islamabad High Court.

The petitioners have made the rector and board of governors’ chairman,  Assistant Professor Awais Ejaz Khan, Assistant Prof Adnan Shabir and Assistant Professor Dr Zulfiqar Ali Shah as respondents.

Assistant Professor Khan, is serving as the chairman of the Department of Undergraduate And Graduate Studies as well as the acting deputy dean at the management sciences department.

Assistant Professor Shabir is an in-charge of the Department of Marketing while Assistant Professor Shah is the acting chairman of the Department of Higher Studies and Research and acting chairman of the Department of Accounting and Finance of the FMS.

The petitioners — Dr Muhammad Arif, Dr Muhammad Shafique and Syed Haseeb Sajjad — through their counsel, Niazullah Khan Niazi, have challenged the impugned appointment of the officials, contending that the departmentalization, structural changes and creation of new positions are in violation of the university ordinance.

The positions of deputy dean, heads, in-charges and the coordinators of the new departments were created by the university president but not approved by the board.

The counsel maintained that structural changes and new positions were to be approved by the BoG within six months, adding that “illegalities” have been made in sheer violation of the IIUI Ordinance, 1985, and such illegalities constitute an invasion of the rights of the petitioners and other eligible employees while simultaneously causing huge financial costs to the university/public exchequer.

Niazi maintained that under the IIUI ordinance and statutes Prof Yasinzai cannot be appointed to the position of dean while being the rector of the university. He has been holding the position of FMS dean for more than one-and-a-half years.

Apart from holding the position as FMS dean, the counsel said, Prof Yasinzai appointed Khan as the acting deputy dean knowing that he had faced an inquiry for concealment and misrepresentation of his academic qualification at the time of appointment.

He alleged that Yasinzai had terminated the inquiry using his authority as rector.

He added that the creation of the position of deputy dean was illegal as the position experimented in several faculties proved a failure and abolished for good.

In addition, Niazi alleged that Khan being the assistant professor possessed no more than 17 years of education while according to the statutes of the university, the minimum requisite educational qualification for the position is 18 years. “[Khan] does not qualify even for the post of a university lecturer,” he stated.

The petition also stated that Shabir also did not possess the minimum requisite qualification of 18 years of formal education and his appointment is also “illegal”. “[Shabir] does not qualify even for the post of a university lecturer,” he stated.

The petitioners further said that Shah has been holding academic and administrative positions and drawing a salary of tenure track system. They said that simultaneously enjoying the incentives associated with these positions is a gross violation of the regulations of Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The petitioners have contended that the respondents have been engaged in and promoting malpractices in all the affairs of the FMS, particularly in the admissions to the research programmes of the faculty and the granting of the research degrees, in the recruitment of new faculty and promotion of existing faculty by means of illegal departmental and administrative positions.

They have prayed the court to declare their positions illegal and set aside all their decisions.

It is further prayed that the officials may be directed to fix the responsibility for these illegal appointments and recover all the benefits given to them by the university and the HEC.

Also, they prayed, the position of dean may be declared vacant and the respondents be directed to fill the same.

It is also prayed that the respondents should be directed to immediately abolish all the unwarranted and illegal departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2016.

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