Headless varsities: Controversy delays appointment of vice-chancellors at KU, SU

Missing marks by a member of the search committee halts process

KARACHI: Appointment of the vice-chancellor (VC) of the University of Karachi (KU) once again hit snags amid controversy surrounding the process for the selection of candidates for the prestigious position.

CM House called the top three candidates for the post of VCs in KU and Sindh University (SU) for interviews on January 5 after the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad bench issued orders to ensure permanent appointments within a month.

On January 7, CM House sent a summary to Governor House for the issuance of notifications of the appointments of the VCs of KU and SU, as the governor is the chancellor of all public sector universities. Governor House stopped, however, the process of notification due to missing marks by a member of the search committee in the interview’s final marking sheet. The reason for suspending the process was because the marking by the former search committee which met in August 2016 and was headed by former chief secretary Fazalur Rehman, was not included. Even the marking sheet presented to CM Murad Ali Shah, on January 5, did not contain the marks awarded by Rehman, which, if included, would probably change the positions of the top three candidates.

The conflict began when Rehman initially did not award marks, causing the mark sheet to only bear the signatures of the other four committee members. Later, Rehman decided to give his marks and a new sheet was compiled, which all but one of the committee members signed. Dr Attaur Rehman refused to sign the sheet, because he felt that marking the candidates again would be in favour of some candidates. After this controversy, the committee was dissolved and a new committee was formed, headed by Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah. In the interview at CM House last week, the marking sheet sans Rehman’s marks was presented to the CM, who was kept in the dark about the controversy.

A Governor House official denied reports that the summary had been sent back to CM House. He said the recently deceased Sindh governor wanted to meet the two candidates who had been selected for KU and SU on Thursday but now the process will be delayed by at least five days.

But the latest controversy has brought into question the whole procedure for the hiring of VCs for public universities. The academia has especially expressed its reservations on the objectivity of the process.

The advertisement published by CM House for the appointment of a new VC for KU on January 27, 2016, read that candidates with doctorates in social sciences will be given priority.

“From the advertisement to the short-listing and from the search committee to the markings, everything is unlawful,” claimed Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) general-secretary Dr Shakeel Farooqi. He said the government has made a joke out of the serious matter of appointing a VC of the biggest general university in the province.

Fapuasa Sindh president Dr Shahnawaz Talpur regretted that, “After so long CM House took the step of holding interviews last week but the process has again been stopped due to the governor’s death”.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2017.