Presidential directives: HEC forms committee to investigate allegations against FUUAST

Two members of the varsity's Senate had requested the President to check the varsity's affairs.

KARACHI: On the directives of President Mamnoon Hussain, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has constituted a three-member committee to investigate the affairs of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast).

"The committee shall evaluate the performance of the university with respect to complaints registered by two Fuuast Senate members, Syed Nasir Abbas and Seema Naz Siddiqui," said Samina Durrani, HEC's deputy director for coordination, in a notification issued on Tuesday.

Prof Dr AQ Mughal, the former vice-chancellor at the Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, was notified as the committee's convener, while Prof Dr Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary, a director at Karachi University's HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry and Prof Dr Ghulam Ghous, finance and planning director at the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, are the other two members.

The commission asked the committee to submit its findings to President Hussain, who is also the chancellor of the federal university, as well as the HEC within four weeks from the notification.

Earlier on March 12, the presidential secretariat's director-general for coordination, Syed Moazzam Ali, had written to the HEC executive director, Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, regarding the "compliant against Fuuast vice-chancellor [Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal] about irregularities and alleged corruption, addressed to the President of Pakistan". Ali had asked the commission to furnish a report on the matter.

The two Fuuast senators, in their complaint, had requested President Hussain to take notice of the alleged corruption and irregularities in the university's affairs since the new vice-chancellor had taken over the charge on February 1, 2013.

They had also requested the President to order an inquiry into the varsity's affairs through the Federal Investigation Agency and National Accountability Bureau.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2014.