AWKUM VC Dr Khurshid resigns, leaves for UK to rejoin Bradford University

PESHAWAR: The resignation of Dr Muhammad Khurshid Khan, the vice-chancellor of Abdui Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM), would become effective from March 31.

He has gone on leave and would be departing for the United Kingdom on Saturday to rejoin the Bradford University, where he was serving before his selection as the vice-chancellor of AWKUM in August 2017 for a three-year term. It would also be a reunion with his UK-based family as it didn’t shift to Pakistan during the last nearly three years of his association with AWKUM.

Prof Dr Zahoorul Haq, the pro-vice-chancellor of AWKUM, is officiating as the vice-chancellor. On April 1, he will become the acting vice-chancellor until the appointment of a regular vice-chancellor. Dr Zahoorul Haq is reportedly also among the top candidates for the office of the regular vice-chancellor. The position was advertised on January 4 and the academic and search committee headed by former federal minister Dr Ataur Rahman was tasked to select the vice-chancellor.

Dr Khurshid, who belongs to Attock district in Punjab, had already made up his mind not to seek another term as the vice-chancellor. He had reportedly conveyed this to the Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and it was the reason the job was advertised while he still serving as the vice-chancellor. As Dr Khurshid didn’t complete his three-year term, there were speculations as to why he left prematurely. One reason could be the government decision to convert the two campuses of AWKUM into quarantine centres for the coronavirus patients in Mardan. The university administration handed over the campuses to the district administration on an urgent basis and suspended other activities indefinitely. Therefore, the vice-chancellor and the faculty had no real work to do during this period.

Moreover, the Bradford University reportedly wanted Dr Khurshid back, more so due to the fact that another Pakistan-origin faculty member at the university, Prof Dr Tahir Khan, had to leave after being appointed as the vice-chancellor of the Abbottabad University of Science & Technology. Prof Dr Tahir Khan and Dr Khurshid have been teaching at the same department at the Bradford University.