Irregularities rock Karachi’s law university

Numerous financial, administrative issues have come to the fore during a recent investigation at SZABUL

KARACHI:

For a public sector institution to function properly, regular checks-and-balances from the government are mandatory in order to timely identify and curb any indications of malpractice or corruption however, when a lack of administrative accountability allows public sector institutions like the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law (SZABUL) to escape culpability for years, occasional investigative reports can be expected to unravel some serious monkey business.

Established in 2015 in Karachi, the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University of Law (SZABUL), which happens to be the first government initiated university of law, has landed in a deep controversy after a first of its kind investigative process by the Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee, under the leadership of Dr Tariq Rafi, Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Sindh, unraveled the presence of several financial and administrative malpractices within the university via its inspection report.

"There is no permanent Vice Chancellor at SZABUL since the past six months and the Vice Chancellor of the Dow Medical College has been given the additional charge of the university by the caretaker government. How can the Vice Chancellor of a medical university be expected to manage and improve the affairs of a law university. We had made arrangements for the process of recruitment to start before the end of the previous VC's term but till date, no VC has been appointed," asserted Dr Tariq Rafi, Chairman HEC Sindh, who further revealed that the former VC was receiving an inordinate remuneration which could perhaps be labelled the highest salary offered by a public sector institution in the country.

According to the report obtained by the Express Tribune from the Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee, SZABUL practices adhocism on several administrative levels, with the Vice Chancellor appointing the Dean himself using the powers of the Chief Minister and the Search Committee, which recommends the names of the Vice Chancellors in the public universities of Sindh, sending the names of the co-opted member experts to the caretaker Chief Minister in connection with the interviews of the candidates for the position.

Regarding the statutory bodies of the university, it has also been revealed that no permanent Director has been appointed for leading the Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) since its establishment, while the members of the Advanced Board of Research do not fulfill its requirements either. Moreover, according to the rules, only the Vice Chancellor, Deans, Chairmen and Professors can be made members of the QEC however, office staff and co-chairmen have also been included here.

Furthermore, the university has no Board of Studies at the departmental level due to which matters are referred directly to the Board of Faculty. On a separate note, queries have also been raised on the university's business school, and Islamabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad campuses, which lie outside the provincial scope of the legal institution.

It has also been stated that the meetings of the Finance and Planning Committee have been held without a nominated member of the Chief Minister and advance salaries and honorariums have been issued without the permission or approval of the competent authority. Moreover, Rs75000 has been given as extra remuneration to Associate Professors while PhD allowances have been promised to non-teaching staff.

Additionally, SZABUL has also been under fire for recruiting more than the stipulated number of employees, leading to a scenario where the ratio of teachers to employees in the university has decreased from the ideal of two teachers per three non-teaching staff to two teachers per five non-teaching staff, as a result only 52 teachers are working among 191 employees.

Speaking in his defense, the Registrar of SZABUL, Brigadier (Retired) Kamran Jalil said, "We have questioned the Department of Universities and Boards regarding the delay in the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor. Even in the absence of a permanent VC, the university is running fairly well."

Jalil quickly dismissed claims of misuse of endowment funds and other matters, with the glib statement, "There is no truth to this. For more queries, contact the university's Public Relations Officer (PRO)."

When the Express Tribune contacted the Acting PRO of the university, he maintained, "All matters in the university are being conducted in accordance with the rules and regulations."