Murad Saeed's degree: Teachers threaten to quit after govt committee recommends sacking UoP VC

Teachers threaten to quit if government goes ahead with recommendations made by govt panel to remove VC

PESHAWAR: The saga of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Murad Saeed’s degree took a new turn on Friday when the Peshawar University’s teacher’s association threatened to quit after a government committee recommended removing the varsity’s vice chancellor to resolve the matter.

MPA Saeed’s degree was challenged when student group Pukhtoon Students Federation accused him of passing his Remote Sensing, Introduction to Environmental Sciences and Ecology papers in one hour.

Saeed subsequently approached the high court. In his petition, the MNA argued that he had attended UoP from 2005 to 2009 for his undergraduate studies and passed all his courses in the said timeframe. The environmental sciences department chairman had issued a course completion certificate on November 26, 2009 and despite repeated attempts, Saeed was informed the varsity administration will send his degree by post. The varsity had later argued that Saeed still needed to clear three papers.

Read: Murad Saeed case: Court told MNA’s BS certificate is sans seal

Later, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government had established a committee, empowering the additional secretary higher education and additional secretary law to probe the matter. However, there was a “split” between the reports from both officials.

A summary forwarded to the K-P CM by the secretary of the Higher Education Department, copies of which are available with The Express Tribune, notes that efforts were made to “develop a consensus” between both reports, but that these efforts “did not succeed”.

The summary of the report holds UoP Vice Chancellor Rasool Jaan responsible, stating that MNA Saeed was deliberately being denied his degree. In his report, secretary education charged the VC with misconduct, advocating his removal under the amended university act of 2015.

Read: Murad Saeed goes to high court to obtain his degree

The summary recommends that the chief minister advise K-P governor, who is also the chancellor of UoP, to sack the vice chancellor Jaan.

The decision, however, was met with opposition in UoP sparking wide spread protests amongst professors at the university on Friday evening,

Jamil Ahmad Chitral, a representative of the Friends group -- which had won the recent Peshawar University Teachers Association (Puta) elections, told The Express Tribune that recommendations made by the secretary were unfair.

“If the government will politicise the education system it will have serious repercussions,” he warned, adding that if the decision is formalised, hundreds of teachers across the province will quit in protest.

“Why does the university of Peshawar, one of the oldest varsities in the country, have to suffer for the degree of a single MNA.”

Other teachers of the university who were contacted were unaware of the decision, but they agreed with Chitrali that if the vice chancellor is removed it will further complicate matters.