Varsities ‘systematically’ being destroyed: CJP

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa on Wednesday remarked that universities were the country’s future but they were systematically being destroyed.

The top judge’s observations came after the Higher Education Commission (HEC) submitted a report to the Supreme Court that read that 66 public universities across the country were without a permanent vice chancellor.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, led by CJP Isa, while hearing a case about the lack of permanent vice chancellors in the country’s public universities, expressed its anger at the issue as well as over the incomplete reports in this connection and sought a progress report within a month.

The HEC report submitted to the SC read that there were a total of 154 public universities in the country, wherein 66 of them had the additional charge of vice chancellor given to some official or the post was vacant.

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The report elaborated that of the 29 public universities in the federal capital, 24 had permanent vice chancellors while five of them were without one.

Out of the 10 public universities in Balochistan, half of them have vice chancellors while the rest have acting ones.

According to the report, out of the 32 government universities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 10 have permanent vice chancellors, 16 with officials holding the post as an additional charge and six are without one.

Similarly, out of the 49 public universities of Punjab, 20 have permanent and 29 acting vice chancellors.

The report disclosed that out of the 29 public universities in Sindh, 24 had permanent vice chancellors while five had officials holding the post as an additional charge.

Irked by these numbers, the CJP remarked that were the officers in the education department sitting idle.

“Everything is slowly falling apart in this country,” he lamented.

CJP Isa further observed that if there were statistics released on uttering profanities and insults, Pakistan would take the first position in the world.

He noted that some people were destroying schools claiming that they were serving Islam and the governments even resorted to negotiating with them.

“Just as the PIA [Pakistan International Airlines] was subjected to destruction, public sector universities are being destroyed as well.”

Explaining the lack of appointment of vice chancellors in 19 public universities in his province, the lawyer representing K-P said three names for each of them had been sent to the governor, but they were not been made public.

Expressing his indignation, CJP Isa inquired why were the names being hidden from the public. “Is there any enmity with them [the people]?”

He further asked would it be a violation of the nuclear codes or the Official Secrets Act.

The top judge remarked that it was from the people’s taxes that they were paid their salaries and then they went on to hide information from them.

He continued that everywhere it was kept a secret so that they could appoint their own people.

“Perhaps a relative of an MPA has to be appointed?”

The CJP added that just fix the education sector and the whole country would be fine.

The SC sought the details of the ratio of academic and non-academic staff in public universities. The top court also sought the details of the vacant posts of controller examinations and director of finance as well as their budgets from these universities. It later adjourned the hearing of the case for an indefinite period.