SU Prof seeks removal of 10-year experience for VC posting

An appeal has been submitted before the Sindh chief minister to remove the “arbitrary and unlawful condition of 10 years administrative experience from [the] advertisement for the post of vice chancellor” at the University of Sindh (SU), the largest public varsity of the province.

In a letter to chief minister Sindh, the focal person of SU Larkana campus Prof Dr Azhar Ali Shah has appealed the CM to withdraw the condition, readvertise the post and restore the autonomy of the varsity.

“There is no example of such a condition either in the HEC’s guidelines or in any other province of Pakistan,” Dr Shah contended. “The controversial condition of 10 years administrative experience for appointment of the VC has created unrest among all the senior professors of the public universities of Sindh and they have started protest and agitation.”

The post was advertised on September 17 after the incumbent VC Prof Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat was sent on leave to face a graft probe being conducted by Sindh Anti Corruption Establishment.

He gave references of sections 13, 2 (I), 28 (b), 9 and 21 University of Sindh Act, 1972, and (Amendment) Act, 2018, to argue that the 10 years condition is not applicable for the post. He said the terms and conditions for appointment of the VC are supposed to be prescribed by the statues made by the SU’s syndicate and approved by the senate.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2020.