VC posts not to be re-advertised

2nd ranked aspirants selected after allegations against 4 top candidates

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has decided to appoint the second best candidates as the vice chancellors of four public sector universities where the top contenders were suspected of malpractices

According to sources, the government has reviewed its decision to re-advertise the posts over concerns expressed by the professors community.

On the other hand, the governor has not yet gone through the summary forwarded by the chief minister for the appointments for other universities, the sources added.

They said the professors had expressed their reservations over the re-advertisement of the posts of four universities due to the alleged involvement of the top candidates in corruption and political activities.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif had interviewed the top candidates for 11 government universities last week but an intelligence report submitted to her office had revealed that four of them had been involved in corruption and political activities.

The sources said the CM secretariat, after the report, had rejected the candidates including former vice chancellor of Government College University Dr Asghar Zaidi and a Punjab University dean. The selections for the Information Technology University and University of Gujrat were also discarded.

An official of the CM secretariat said that in view of the concerns expressed by the teachers, the chief minister had again conducted interviews of four candidates for appointment as VCs.

The CM interviewed Dr Nadeem Ahmad Sheikh, Dr Adnan Noor Mian, Dr Ishtiaq Rajwana and Dr Muhammad Idrees as they were on the second number in the summaries. After the interviews a new summary for the appointments of the VCs of the Universities of Narowal and Gujrat, ITU and GCU was forwarded.

Now the summary for appointments in 11 universities is pending with the Governor's Secretariat for his signature.

The official said it was also possible that a joint summary for all 25 universities where the posts of VC are vacant would be signed on the same day in the coming week.

"The summary of VCs' appointment has bene received by the Governor's Secretariat but due to his busy schedule he has not perused it yet, said an official of the Governor House.

The President of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA), Dr Amjad Magsi, said the posts of VCs had been vacant for the past two years and the public sector universities had been facing several problems in the absence of permanent heads.

He said that due to the allegations regarding political activities and corruption against the recommended candidates for four universities, there were apprehensions among the professors that it would take about four months to complete procedure for the appointments again.

"We were happy that the Punjab CM took a good initiative to reject those suspected of corruption but we also wished the appointment of the next candidates from among those shortlisted as the VCs," Dr Magsi added.

"We appreciate the decision of the chief minister and now hope that the governor will sign the summary without a delay so that the affairs of the universities should be streamlined," he said.