VC’s appointment called into question

FAPUASA urges the Punjab government to immediately hold an inquiry into the matter.

LAHORE: The recent appointment of Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad as vice chancellor of the University of Sargodha (UoS) has been called into question in a letter sent to the Punjab chief minister, governor and higher education minister.

The letter claims that Dr Ahmed was ineligible to apply for the post of vice chancellor in any public university of the province. Dr Ahmed was appointed as the vice chancellor of the UoS on May 29 after a delay of about two years as the appointment procedure was challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC).



The letter alleges that Dr Ahmed was illegally appointed as the vice chancellor and he did not fulfil the legal requirement for the post because he did not have the required 15 research publications and experience mentioned in the advertisement for the posts of vice chancellors. It claims Dr Ahmed’s appointment at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, as an associate professor under the Tenure Track System (TTS) was also illegal as per the rules and regulations of the Higher Education Commission.

The letter has been sent by Advocate Hasnain Raza Barvi to Punjab’s higher education appointing authorities - Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Governor Rafiq Rajwana and Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani.

“This letter primarily reveals one of the biggest scandals encompassing intellectual-cum-financial corruption leading to a complete disaster in higher education sector in Pakistan. The appointment of Dr Ahmed as vice chancellor, UoS, has been a vivid instance of colossal administrative, academic, intellectual and financial corruption that has implicated many prestigious government institutions such as Higher Education Department (HED), Punjab, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, and QAU,” he states.

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The letter demands the vice chancellor be immediately removed from his post, while giving details of alleged illegalities in his appointment both as the VC and as a tenured associate professor at the QAU.

It claims that Dr Ahmed’s appointment as associate professor under the TTS was unlawfully made by the QAU in 2007 because he did not “possess the required number of papers followed by illicit endorsement by HEC in 2014”. It added that Dr Ahmed had only four research papers to his credit, while the requirement was 10 at the time of his appointment.

“After having been unlawfully appointed as associate professor on Tenure Track, Dr Ahmed did not serve QAU as associate professor on tenure track for the requisite time period i.e. 04 years and proceeded to the United Kingdom by violating the fundamental provision of the Model Tenure Track Statutes.” It stated that he could only avail a yearlong leave but he stayed in the UK for five years and admitted it in a letter to the HEC chairman. This and other irregularities had also been highlighted by both the HEC and the QAU syndicate while processing Dr Ahmed’s promotion as professor, it added.

Speaking about the academicians’ concerns on the matter, the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association’s (FAPUASA) Punjab Chapter President Dr Javed Ahmad demanded that the provincial government immediately hold an impartial inquiry into the issue. He said, “We will not allow the destruction of public sector universities through such appointments.”

The Punjab higher education minister did not respond to requests to present the government’s point of view regarding the appointment.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2017.