In Punjab: Govt appoints VCs at three universities

Provincial Higher Education Department issues notifications

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday appointed vice chancellors at the University of Okara, the University of Sahiwal and Ghazi University.

The Punjab Higher Education Department issued notifications for all three universities.

According to the notifications, Dr Zakria Zakar has been appointed at the University of Okara, Dr Muhammad Tufail has been appointed at the Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan and Dr Muhammad Nasir Afzal has been appointed as the vice chancellor for the University of Sahiwal. At all three varsities, Dr Zakar topped the interviews. However, he opted to join the University of Okara as its first vice chancellor.

The interim government had halted the appointments. According to an official, there were some fine points in the Supreme Court of Pakistan's judgment pertaining to the appointment process. However, after clarification, the caretaker government went ahead with the appointments. The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) had earlier sent three names for each university to the interim chief minister after interviews were conducted by respective search committees.

As for the remaining universities, the process has also been completed for the Information Technology University (ITU), Lahore. However, no name has been finalised yet.

Interviews at the University of Jhang were held on Monday and it was the first day of interviews. A total of 40 candidates have been shortlisted for interviews. Universities where interviews are yet to be held include Women University Multan and University of Home Economics Lahore.

Meanwhile, the HED has asked the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) to submit a panel of interviewers for another nine universities in Punjab.

Some of these institutes are newly-established and others have vice chancellors whose terms are set to expire.

The nine universities include University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB), University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Taxila, Government College University (GCU) Faisalabad, University of Gujrat (UoG), Government College for Women University (GCWU) Faisalabad, Government College for Women University (GCWU) Sialkot, University of Narowal and University of Murree.

The tenure of VCs at UET Lahore, IUB, GCU Faisalabad and UoG will end on December 16, 2018. Meanwhile, the term of VCs of GCWU Faisalabad and GCWU Sialkot will expire on September 9 and 11, 2018, respectively. The position of the UET Taxila VC became vacant when the incumbent was appointed as VC of Punjab University. Also, the University of Narowal and the University of Murree have been recently established by the Punjab government and are without vice chancellors.

The search committee for each university will be formed for a period of two years from the proposed panels, which will be tasked with interviewing candidates who apply for the top slots. Apart from the panels for search committees, the HED has also tasked the PHEC to submit a panel of experts for both the engineering universities, UET Lahore and Taxila.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2018.