Islamic College University: ICU teachers unite against VC appointment

Say the position must be given to someone from within the institution.

PESHAWAR: Teachers at the Islamia College University have said they will not accept the appointment of a vice chancellor (VC) from outside the institution.

The college has not had a VC since the kidnapping of Ajmal Khan near his residential quarters back in September 2010. He still remains
in captivity.

Islamia College University Teachers Association (ICUTA) President Faisal Shahzad along with the university’s senior staff told journalists at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday that the current Acting VC Dr Ihsan Ali should retain his post. They criticised the higher education department for the university’s problems and for interfering in administrative affairs.

The higher education department had announced appointing Dr Adnan Sarwar Khan, chair of the international relations department at the University of Peshawar, as the ICU VC. Almost all the faculty except for three members opposed the appointment, Shahzad said.

He threatened that all deans, teachers, senate and syndicate members will protest if anyone from outside the university is appointed.

He alleged the university was being unfairly treated since VC Khan was kidnapped and claimed it was being pushed towards a steady decline after it was chartered in 2008. Soon after Ajmal’s abduction, university rules required the most senior high official to be made vice chancellor. However, after the higher education’s intervention, outsiders took charge and started meddling with university affairs, according to Shehzad.

“If the government wants to improve the situation at the university, then it should make the most senior professor the acting or fulltime VC instead of bringing someone in from outside or giving charge to the secretary of the higher education department.”

Shahzad appreciated the current VC’s performance and said Dr Ihsan has been diligently running university affairs and all faculties and staff associations support and approve of him. He demanded that the current VC retain his post.

“If they say that Dr Ihsan Ali is running two universities and cannot manage them effectively, then bringing someone from outside or placing the institution under the secretary of the higher education cannot possibly work, considering he is burdened with handling all public sector universities in the province,” he said.

He warned faculty members were thinking about boycotting the university’s centenary this year if things do not change.

“We will be forced to boycott admissions for the new academic session that will start soon,” he said, adding they will raise the issue at the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association platform.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2013.