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LAHORE, March 3: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) board of governors has approved the sacking of university’s controller of examinations and registrar
Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob and Muhammad Siddique Chaudhry were sacked by the vice-chancellor on Jan 27, hardly 19 days after their appointment. Sources claim that they have been penalized for objecting to “certain irregularities” in the UHS administrative matters.
The BoG reportedly confirmed the university administration decision in its meeting a few days ago.
Meanwhile, the UHS BoG has appointed Sheikh Fida Husain, who had retired as deputy controller of examinations of the Punjab University and is a matriculate, as adviser examinations on a six-month contract to assist in holding the exams.
Mr Fida Husain has replaced Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob, who was appointed as an adviser on examinations on Oct 16 last year. Later, on Jan 8, UHS vice-chancellor Prof Dr Hayat Zafar appointed Chaudhry Yaqoob as Controller of Examinations (CE) in BPS-20 on a two-year contract. Chaudhry Yaqoob had served the Punjab University for 26 years as its CE.
The same day (Jan 8), the UHS had hired Muhammad Siddique Chaudhry as registrar in BPS-20 on a two-year contract.
The UHS vice-chancellor, however, on Jan 27 withdrew their appointment orders, stating: “As a matter of general financial principle retrospective effect cannot be given to financial sanctions and that in this case approval of the board of governors was necessary”.
Later, both the officials stopped visiting the UHS when the management removed their office telephones.
Sources said their appointment orders had been withdrawn because they had objected to the creation of posts in violation of the UHS, Lahore, Ordinance 2002, posting of certain officials, proposed budget estimates and acquisition of costly equipment to conduct examinations.
Challenging the withdrawal of his appointment letter, the former registrar submitted to the vice-chancellor that the contents of the new order were completely incorrect, illegal, and based on malafide intentions. He said the order as a whole carried the impression that the settlement of terms and conditions would first have to be placed before the BoG for approval before being given effect and did not alter the otherwise constitutional position held by him.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Siddique said he had legal right to sue the university. He said the VC had appointed him as registrar in BPS-20 on Nov 11 last year till further orders subject to settlement of the terms and conditions. He joined the office the same day.
This year, on Jan 28, the VC notified the terms and conditions of his service as well as the period of contract.
The two orders, according to him, were interconnected and it was incorrect to assume that any retrospective effect to the financial sanctions was ever contemplated. He said the VC had also taken the BoG chairman as well as the chief executive into confidence and finalized the terms and conditions of his service with their consent.
Later, he said, the VC had issued a consolidated order on the desire of UHS Chief Executive Manzoor Husain, whose resignation was also accepted in the BoG meeting.
IRREGULARITIES: Sources say that registrar Siddique Chaudhry had objected in writing that the notification of an organogram of the university was not in conformity with the dictates of the university ordinance and indicated an altogether different setup. He had also stated that the budgetary proposals prepared on the basis of the notified organogram would be premature and a futile exercise. He also added that the ordinance should be followed instead of the PC-I.
Mr Chaudhry said the posts like DG (finance), deputy director (finance), DG (admin), director (certification) and director (admission and affiliations) shown in PC-I were not provided in the ordinance. Similarly, he said, the posts like manager finance, budget and accounts officer, treasury officer, manager computer resource centre, deputy manager (HW) and (SW) were neither included in PC-I nor mentioned in the ordinance. He also said the posts of GM (admn and coordination) and deputy manager (admn) had no provision in the ordinance.
Sources said the Punjab government had appointed Prof Dr Eice Muhammad as dean of academics of the university — a post that was not provided in the university ordinance.
They said the UHS ordinance had stated that there would be a dean of each faculty, who would be the chairman and convener of the board of faculty. The ordinance also says, “the dean of each faculty shall be appointed by the chancellor from amongst the three senior-most professors in the faculty for a period of three years and shall be eligible for reappointment,”. The ordinance also says that ‘Faculty’ means a faculty of the university. However, the UHS has so far no faculty.
Similarly, sources said, the UHS appointed general cadre doctors, Dr Asad Zaheer and Dr Saqib Mahmood, as assistant deans, the posts also not provided in the ordinance.
Talking to Dawn, Chaudhry Yaqoob said that he was penalized because he had opposed the UHS move of posting Dr Saqib Mahmood as assistant controller of examinations. He claimed that he had also asked the UHS management to acquire only simple and necessary equipment. “The UHS management was, however, interested in purchasing costly equipment,” he alleged. When contacted, UHS vice-chancellor Prof Dr Hayat Zafar, who is based in Multan, confirmed that Sheikh Fida Husain had been appointed as adviser examinations on a six-month contract.
Answering a question about the removal of Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob and Muhammad Siddique Chaudhry, he said the authority to appoint BPS-20 officials, which included vice-chancellor, pro-vice-chancellor, chief executive, controller of examinations, registrar and treasurer, vested with the Punjab governor. He said the UHS board of governors had also declined to approve their appointments.
Answering another question, Prof Zafar admitted that he had himself issued appointment orders “drafted by the two candidates themselves. I could not understand the move because I had just taken over the UHS as VC.”
Answering a question about the creation of post of Dean of Academics in violation of the University Ordinance, he said the appointment had been made by Punjab Governor, who was also chancellor of the university.
He said Prof Eice was appointed as Dean of Academics to share the workload in the university. As more medical colleges would affiliate with the UHS, he said more deans would be appointed following the UHS ordinance.
Commenting on the posts of assistant deans, he admitted that these posts existed nowhere. He claimed that Dr Saqib had now been posted as assistant controller of examinations and Dr Asad as assistant registrar.
Answering a question about the approved organogram of the UHS, the VC said the university had decided not to fill the posts mentioned in the UHS PC-I right now. “These posts will be filled as and when required”, he said.
