Long-serving VC of Dow varsity removed

Khawar Saeed Jamali takes over as acting VC

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Thursday ordered the removal of the long-serving vice-chancellor (VC) of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Prof Dr Masood Hameed Khan. DUHS pro-VC Prof Dr Khawar Saeed Jamali has been given the additional charge of VC until further orders.

Prof Khan was serving as acting VC after completing his two tenures as the VC and the varsity has been without a permanent VC since September 2015.

Prof Khan completed his first tenure as the VC of the varsity in 2011 and completed his second tenure in September 2015 and was appointed acting VC shortly after.



The controversial appointment

The matter of the appointment of DUHS's VC was taken to the judiciary when Prof Khan's second tenure as VC ended on September 15, 2015, and Prof Dr Noshad A Shaikh was appointed VC out of turn by then governor Dr Ishratul Ebad. Prof Dr Saeed Qureshi, who was at the top on the list of candidates recommended for the post by the search committee, was not even considered.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) filed a petition and won the case, yet Dr Khan was allowed to continue his duties as acting VC. PMA filed another petition stating that, according to the laws governing universities, no candidate can be the VC of any university if he has completed two terms as VC of any university in the province but Dr Khan is on his third term.



On December 30, 2016, an SHC circuit bench in Hyderabad ordered the appointment of the permanent VCs of three universities - Karachi University (KU), Sindh University (SU) and DUHS - within a month. A week after the court order, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah called the top candidates for the post at KU and SU for final interviews - the candidates shortlisted for DUHS were not called. Prof Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat was appointed the VC of SU on January 19, while Prof Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan was appointed the head of KU four days later on January 23.

An official of CM House then claimed that a meeting would be held within a week for the appointment of the DUHS VC with the governor. However, then governor Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui died the same day the candidates were called for the meeting.