A parliamentary panel on Monday found that Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has not been following the job quota for smaller provinces. However, it also directed a top bureaucrat to clarify the legality of QAU stance on the issue.
The Special Senate Committee met with its convener, Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, and summoned the Establishment secretary to appear before the committee on December 22 to clarify whether federal educational institutes are bound to follow the quota system in recruitment for the provinces specified in the constitution.
The committee also expressed its dismay over the absence of QAU vice-chancellor Dr Masoom Yasinzai and Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Javaid Leghari from the meeting.
The meeting was specially convened to discuss recruitments in QAU, which has been hiring people without following the provincial quota for a long time.
Senators from the smaller provinces noted that even being a federal university, it has been inducting people without following the provincial quota enshrined in the constitution.
QAU Registrar Dr Shafiqur Rehman contended that “the university has its own rules which make no mention of quotas; appointments are made strictly on merit.”
He briefed the committee that in total, there are 1,274 posts at QAU from BPS-1 to 16, of which 995 have been filled, whereas 460 posts are for BPS-17 and 264 of them have been filled. All recruitments against these positions were done on merit without following the quota system.
The registrar’s answer angered senators from smaller provinces, including Zahid Khan of Awami National Party, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and Dr Abdul Malik of the National Party from Balochistan.
They termed it a violation of the constitutional right of backward areas, saying those regions deserve special attention from the government. “There is no justification for not observing provincial quotas in a federal university,” said Senator Mashhadi.
He said that the Establishment secretary must be summoned in the next meeting to clarify whether higher learning institutes are exempted from following the provincial quotas and if the parliament can summon the heads of universities.
The committee notified the Establishment secretary to ensure his presence in the next meeting to clarify the issue.
The members also pointed out that the HEC also ignores the provincial quota while making recruitments.
The next meeting would also discuss recruitment issues in Allama Iqbal Open University and the HEC. The committee also suggested that these institutes must publish advertisements related to jobs in local newspapers to make it convenient for candidates who live in far-flung areas.
Earlier, the HEC representative said the commission only gives instructions on criteria pertaining to faculty members’s qualifications, not the criteria pertaining to other university employees.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2011.
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