Pro-VCs vying for top posts face dejection

Out of the around 600 professors who applied for appointment as vice chancellors of government universities in Punjab, most of those set to be selected have already served on the post.

The search committee and Punjab government not only ignored most of the fresh candidates, but also did not recommend any of the pro-VCs serving in the universities for selection as the permanent VC.

According to sources, several pro-VCs have written a letter to the governor, who is the chancellor of the government universities in the province, urging him to take the matter into consideration in the appointments. They also requested the governor to review the recent appointments of seven VCs. Among the 25 vacant posts, the Punjab government had recently issued the notification of the appointment of the VCs of seven institutions, including the Punjab University and University of Engineering and Technology. The selected candidates had already served as VC earlier.

The sources said the summaries sent to the Governor House for the remaining universities also recommend the names of professors who have already served as VC in about 90 per cent cases. They said the governor had rejected all the summaries of the government and the Governor House are locked in a tussle over the matter.

They said a group of pro VCs of women's universities had written a letter to the governor, requesting him to stop the re-appointment of the candidates who had already enjoyed the post of VC. An official of the Governor's Secretariat said Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider also had reservations on the selection of VCs who had already served on the post. He said the governor was of the view that there should be merit and opportunities for new candidates too.

The official said the Chief Minister's Secretariat had sent the names of the top candidates in its summaries but the governor desired to interview the top three candidates shortlisted for each post.

He said the letter by the pro-VCs had alleged that most of the candidates recommended by the CM had also been selected as VC during the previous tenure of the PML-N in the province. A pro-VC said they had unanimously written the letter to the governor about the matter. "We mentioned that most selected VCs are those who have served once or twice as VCs, including in the women's universities, " the pro-VC added.

On the other hand, Punjab Education Minister Rana Sakander Hayat asked why the pro-VCs had not strengthened the universities during their tenure and why the governor had not acted over the deteriorating conditions under their watch. He said the government had selected the VCs on merit in view of their academic record.

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had completed the process of appointing the VCs transparently for the first time. She said one should not play with the future of students or politicise the appointments.