LAHORE, July 13: As the four-year term of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, vice-chancellor Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry is expiring on Wednesday (today)
, the BZU academic staff association and syndicate members have sent a joint letter to the Punjab chief minister urging him not to extend his tenure.
In the letter, BZUASA president Prof Dr Abdur Rouf Kosar and syndicate members Ali Asghar Saleemi and Mian Ghulam Yasin have apprised the chief minister about the academic, financial and administrative corruption of Dr Chaudhry.
They refuted the VC's claims regarding certain achievements made by him during his tenure. They said Dr Chaudhry had wrongly claimed the eradication of corruption in the university. Instead, they alleged, that the VC had himself developed a strong reputation of being corrupt.
They claimed that the anti-corruption establishment and the NAB had collected certain cases and were seeking the governor/chancellor's permission to proceed against him.
They said the VC misused emergency powers to award contractual appointments without following the prescribed procedures and grant of out-of-turn promotions. Regarding the academic corruption, the association members said no meeting of the university's academic council had been held during the last three years.
They said the vice chancellor started new disciplines and programmes of studies, amended various courses of readings and issued directives to switch over from the annual system to the semester system by using his arbitrary executive powers.
They claimed that Dr Chaudhry did not even bother to seek approval of his actions from the bodies concerned, including the faculty boards and the academic council.
The BZUASA members alleged that the VC was also instrumental in distributing masters degrees amongst students without proper instructions and the testing systems, particularly in the newly started disciplines like applied psychology, sociology and philosophy.
They said these disciplines were being run by irrelevant, inexperienced and part time/visiting faculty. They said these disciplines were started some three years ago but not a single teacher had so far been recruited on regular basis.
They alleged that Mr Chaudhry was also instrumental even in awarding the PhD degrees to some of his close associates. They claimed that such actions taken by him had not only damaged the academic standards but also caused irreparable loss to the university.
About development works, they said the construction of auditorium/convocation hall was started in 2001 which was yet to be completed. They said the project was abandoned on the orders of the university authorities.
The members also said that the law and order situation on the campus since Dr Chaudhry's appointment was getting worse gradually. They alleged that the incidents of firing, harassment, mental and physical torture of the students by the non-students had become a routine.
They further alleged that the university hostels had been converted into dens of mafias and criminals due to the unlawful permission granted to them from time to time to occupy the rooms.
