Anomalies surface in KP VCs’ appointment process

PESHAWAR: Serious illegalities and irregularities have been unearthed in the process for appointment of vice-chancellors for eight public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The summary for the appointments has recently been moved and the final decision is expected in a couple of weeks. Returned by the Establishment Department pointing out certain anomalies, the Higher Education Department (HED) has resubmitted the summary with the opinion that any candidate other than those pointed out could be selected as a panel of three candidates has been recommended for each position, reliable sources told The News.

This has raised questions about the claims made by the government that it was ensuring transparency and meritocracy. Some 24 names have been finalized for the positions of the eight vice-chancellors on the recommendation of the academic and search committee headed by known scientist and former federal minister Dr Ataur Rahman.

The search committee has directed the authorities to select the candidate placed on the top from the panel of three candidates recommended for each university. Sources said the government is required to give a valid reason to justify the decision in case it preferred any candidate other than the one on top.

Some reservations had already been expressed about several of the names shortlisted for appointment. Even before the panel interviewsand recommendation of the 24 names, serious questions had been raised about the shortlisting for the interviews.

A number of senior academicians approached The News and claimed that they had been ignored despite meeting the criteria while junior professors facing serious questions about their eligibility had been called for the interviews.

A letter was sent to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court requesting them to take suo motu notice of the process and stop it till all the legal requirements are fulfilled.

The letter had challenged the formation of the academic and search committee. It claimed that two members of the committee did not meet the criteria to be inducted into the body. The letter argued that some senior and eligible candidates had been ignored in the initial shortlisting.

But an official of the Higher Education Department told The News that this time they had demonstrated enough care so that a deserving candidate is not ignored even “inadvertently” and everyone meeting the basic criteria had been called for the interviews held on December 23-24, 2019.

A number of candidates recommended for vice-chancellor’s positions either had cases of financial embezzlement against them, faced issues of eligibility or were singled out for poor performance.

Some of the recommended candidates hail from provinces other than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Others have dual nationalities. This drew criticism from academic as well as political circles.

Some of the shortlisted candidates have crossed the age limit of 65 years for appointment of vice-chancellors. Among them are those who served for ten years and above against the same position in different universities.

They faced serious allegations of financial embezzlement, irregularities in recruitment and poor performance during their previous tenures as vice-chancellor.

Some reports suggested they had inflicted serious damage on account of academic, research and poor management at the institutions where they served.

Among them is a professor who has already crossed the age of retirement. He has served as vice-chancellor of two universities in Peshawar and in Upper Dir district.

There have been serious allegations of anomalies in recruitment against him. According to reports, he recruited around 500 people hailing from his native district, Lakki Marwat in the two universities in different capacities.

Other reports suggested that during his four-year tenure as VC in Upper Dir district, he mostly preferred to stay in Peshawar and ran the university from the provincial capital. This affected the university adversely.

A reliable source confided to The News that names for the Women University, Swabi were also tactfully recommended.

Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi has been recommended as the vice-chancellor for the university but she may not accept the offer as she belongs to Karachi where she heads another institution. In such a situation, the government would likely appoint one from the remaining two candidates, Dr Noor Jehan who served as acting vice-chancellor of Islamia College University, Peshawar and regular vice-chancellor of the University of Swabi, and Dr Khanzadi Fatima, who served as vice-chancellor of Women University, Swabi for four years.

Some questions have been raised against the eligibility of yet another candidate recommended for appointment as vice-chancellor of two universities.

He has not produced even a single PhD or MPhil scholar and could not execute any research project. Also, he had been unable to publish any article as principal author.

Reached for his comments on the issue, provincial Secretary Higher Education Arshad Khan said that the recommendations were made by the five-member academic and search committee headed by Dr Ataur Rahman. “I am the secretary of the committee, not its member,” he said.

He said that no anomaly has been made in the selection process. “The Establishment Department had expressed just one observation that three in the list of final candidates had crossed the age limit of 65 years. The HED resubmitted the summary with the opinion that three candidates had been shortlisted for each university so anyone else could be selected from the panel. The summary has now been processed again and the final decision would be taken soon,” he explained while talking to The News

About the selection of the most favourite candidate, the secretary made it clear that there was no restriction of selecting the candidate at the top of the panel. “Had there been any such restriction, there would have been no need of recommending names to the chief minister and governor. There is a role of the chief minister and the governor in the selection process and this cannot be over-ruled,” he argued.

He was of the opinion that in case of such restrictions the search committee would have made direct appointment of the suitable candidate.

About the role of the HED, he said that since he was the secretary of the body it was his duty to manage its affairs in line with prescribed rules and regulations.

About the candidates who have crossed the age of retirement, the secretary, Higher Education said: “I had informed the chairman of the search committee, but he suggested that since they had not mentioned age in the advertisement, they should interview the candidates, make recommendations and leave it to the government to take the final decision.”