Controversial law complicates VC’s selection at IBA Sukkur

Institute says its senate can select VC per the University Act, making it the only varsity to do so in Sindh

KARACHI:

Due to a controversial law, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Sukkur has emerged as the only higher educational institution in Sindh that will elect its vice-chancellor (VC) internally. As a result, the search committee set up by the provincial government to select the VCs of government universities in Sindh will be rendered irrelevant in case of IBA Sukkur.

Instead, the IBA Sukkur senate will form an internal team to select a VC for the varsity, with over 50 per cent of the members belonging to the IBA.

Per sources, the IBA Sukkur senate has been given this privilege in the University Act, 2017. Surprisingly, when the Public Universities Act of Sindh was amended in 2018 to give the law an equal status for all universities in Sindh, IBA Sukkur was excluded.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, IBA Sukkur registrar Zahid Hussain Khand confirmed that the power to form a committee for the VC’s selection had been vested with the institute’s senate through the University Act, 2017.

“Under Section XV, clause II and clause III of the amended act, this power still lies with the university’s senate. However, after an amendment was made to the act in 2018, the chairperson of the senate is now the Sindh chief minister instead of the current service judge,” Khand explained.

It should be noted that in other clauses of the relevant section relating to the VC’s selection, the word “chancellor” has been replaced with the word “chief minister.” That apart, some clauses have also been removed. No amendment has been made in either clause II or clause III of Section XV of the Act.

According to IBA Sukkur, since these two clauses were not changed, the institution could form its own search committee for the VC’s selection.

Sources further said that a notification related to the appointment of IBA’s acting VC, Dr Mir Muhammad Shah, was issued on July 21. At the same time, the CM also approved the advertisement for the selection of a permanent VC for IBA Sukkur.

However, the Sindh universities and boards department has been facing trouble in the advertisement’s issuance as per the procedure laid down out in the amended act, which applies to all universities of the province.

Sources revealed that the Sindh government is in a dilemma concerning the appointment of IBA Sukkur’s VC under a separate procedure because the method could raise questions about the transparency of the appointment process.

The notification issued by the universities and boards department for Dr Shah’s appointment as the acting VC stated that the appointment of a permanent VC will be made through a search committee. However, The Express Tribune has learned that the department secretary, Riazuddin, is himself confused as to how the Sindh government’s search committee will select IBA Sukkur’s VC.

According to the information available with The Express Tribune regarding the amended Universities Act, 2018, for IBA Sukkur, clause II of Section XV stated that for the appointment of a VC, the varsity’s senate would set up a search committee and the senate’s chairperson would nominate two prominent figures for the committee. One of the two would also be the search committee’s convener.

Besides, the act stated that two more members of the committee would be chosen from the senate, while another two prominent teachers would be selected from IBA Sukkur, who would not be members of the senate. The seventh member is to be an educationist who is not an employee of IBA Sukkur.

In addition, according to clause III of Section XV, the names of the two university teachers to be selected for the search committee are to be suggested by university teachers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2020.