Outgoing KMU VC has served KP for 30 years

PESHAWAR: Prof Dr Arshad Javaid has served Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the last 30 years in different capacities such as Dean of Postgraduate Medical Institute, Dean and Chief Executive of Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex and most recently as the Vice-Chancellor of Khyber Medical University (KMU).

Prof Arshad Javaid will soon hand over the charge of Khyber Medical University to the pro-vice chancellor of the KMU. Of late, a lot has been written about the extension in service of the vice chancellors of the various universities of KP, including KMU. The matter has now been resolved with the decision of the provincial cabinet to advertise the posts of the vice-chancellors in all universities where the tenures of the incumbent VCs are about to end.

However, some sections of the media spread a false news that Prof Arshad Javaid filed a writ petition in Peshawar High Court against the decision of the KP government for not approving the extension of all the vice chancellors and that the court has dismissed his petition. This correspondent reached Prof. Arshad Javaid for his comments, but he denied any writ petition to the court about the decision of the KP government to advertise the posts of VCs and not extending the tenures of the current VCs. He said that he respected the decision made by the elected representatives and would never go against it. He added that there was a court hearing, but it was on a different matter altogether rather than his extension.

It was learnt that the hearing was the result of a February 2020 application by Dr Arshad Javaid wherein he requested the court that in line of an earlier high court decision of Feb 27, 2019, the relevant department may be asked to notify Prof. Javaid as the regular vice-chancellor of KMU from the date of the high court decision.

Prof. Arshad was working in acting capacity till then as per a March 2018 decision of the court in the case filed by another professor against the selection of the VC KMU. Dr Arshad Javaid said that a petition was filed against his impending extension in the court by Dr Jamshed Ali even before it was discussed in the provincial cabinet. He said that the high court dismissed both the cases. Prof Arshad said he was leaving KMU in a much stronger place than he had inherited. He said in the last three years, the university doubled its number of PhD faculty, the KMU PHRL became functional and played an important role in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The construction of the Liver Transplant Unit was now on the right track, he added. He said the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council had recognised the KMU Institute of Dental Sciences. He added that there were now more undergraduate and graduate programmes at the university, enhancing its revenue. The KMU was one of the two universities in the province that had no debt and was being run on a self-sustainable model, he went on to add.

The outgoing VC said that the induction of high-class faculty in his tenure has led to increase in research output for which the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has given KMU the “Research Intensive University” title enjoyed by only a handful of universities in Pakistan.