Bureaucratic deadlock puts varsity in turmoil

An ongoing bureaucratic tussle has victimised the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science, and Technology (FUUAST), to the point where it is being run without a Vice Chancellor (VC) for the past couple of months.

Friction between the Chancellor’s Secretariat, which is a part of the President House, and the Federal Ministry of Education, has led to the country’s first university imparting education in the national language, has resulted in FUUAST being devoid of a VC for the last two months. Resultantly, an acting registrar of the university is currently responsible for running its administrative and financial affairs - which sources from the education ministry believe is fast plunging the institute into an irremediable crisis.

The Express Tribune also learnt from officials privy to the plight of the institute that the absence of an administrative head means that funds available with the university for day to day running cannot be used as there is no VC to sign off on their usage. Hence, all the university can do presently is pay salaries and pensions, which are given as a grant by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Sources at the education ministry said that after the removal of the acting VC, Dr Muhammad Ziauddin, back in April, the ministry sent a summary comprised of three names to the Chancellor Secretariat for a new acting VC for FUUAST; however, no action was taken. It was learnt that the secretariat had reservations against appointing an acting VC as according to the Act which gave birth to the university, only the senate of the institution has the power to recommend the appointment of an acting VC. Thus, it was not in the Ministry of Education’s domain to forward a summary recommending candidates for the acting VC post. However, as per officials of the ministry, since FUUAST’s senate no longer exists, on account of members having completed their term, the ministry stepped in to recommend candidates for acting VC.

The ministry’s move, however, is contrary to the language of the university’s Act, which states that if the senate of the institution does not exist, a 3-member emergency committee of the senate will give recommendations on various issues.

It is pertinent to mention that as per internal documents and information gathered by The Express Tribune, a meeting of the 3-member senate emergency committee was held on 31st of March, in which it was recommended that once Dr Ziauddin’s term expired, Dr Sarosh Lodhi, VC of NED University would take charge as acting VC of FUUAST; and in the event that Dr Lodhi did not take the additional charge, Dr Ziauddin would continue in his post until the appointment of a permanent VC.

In this regard, The Express Tribune contacted Chairman HEC, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, to confirm the veracity of the information received, who said that the university’s current ad-hocism was its own doing.

While the HEC Chairman did not give any further insight into the friction between the Chancellor Secretariat and the Ministry of Education, the Secretary of the Ministry, Waseem Ajmal, said that the Act governing FUUAST was the root cause of all problems being experienced by the institute. “In the long term, the Act has to be changed, and we are working on it,” informed Ajmal. When asked about FUUAST’s fate in the short term, the Secretary told The Express Tribune that a VC would be appointed but doing so without the university’s senate “did not seem possible.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2023.