KARACHI, May 22: The vice-chancellor of Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Dr Iqbal Mohsin, has tendered his resignation from the post on personal grounds, said sources in the Higher Education Commission on Monday.
It was learnt that the HEC had received a letter on May 13 from Dr Iqbal, expressing his inability to continue on the post of vice-chancellor.
Since the President of Pakistan is chancellor of the university, the request of Dr Iqbal for a reliever had been forwarded to the President House, said the source, adding if the resignation is accepted, an interim arrangement would have to be made for looking after the affairs of the institutions till the appointment of a new vice-chancellor.
A relevant section of the Urdu University Ordinance-2002, says: “At any time when the office of the vice-chancellor is vacant or the vice-chancellor is absent or is unable to perform the functions of his office due to illness or some other cause, the senate (of the university) shall make such arrangements for the performance of the duties of the vice-chancellor as it may deem fit.”
After the exit of Dr Pirzada Qasim, the first vice-chancellor of the university, Aftab Ahmad Khan, who was also a member of the university’s senate, performed for about nine months as chief-administrator in the absence of vice-chancellor.
A source on the campus said that the Urdu varsity, which was considered still being in its structural phase with two campuses at Karachi and Islamabad, had been unable to maintain any of its vice-chancellors unfortunately till the end of their sanctioned tenure of four years.
Recently, the crisis-hit university was badly criticised for its inability to have adequate teaching and training facilities for about 700 students admitted in three batches to a few market-oriented programmes, including MSc telecommunications and bachelors of engineering disciplines, in Islamabad campus. At one stage, the key administrative officials of the university, including Dr Iqbal, were locked in their rooms by enraged students, who feared that they might not get degrees of the programme they were enrolled in, added the source.
A senior academic said that in view of the prevailing affairs on the Islamabad campus, there was a possibility that some arrangements would be made for absorption of students enrolled in a couple of engineering and specialization degree programmes at some other relevant institutions of Islamabad or in its vicinity.
When contacted, Dr Iqbal said that he had submitted his resignation about a week back to President of Pakistan through the HEC, as he personally felt that he would be unable to focus evenly on all the campuses of the university. He said that he had been asked by the HEC chairman to continue on the post till the time a suitable reliever was found.
Under the university code, the principal seat of the university was required to be at Islamabad, but due to his personal limitations and domestic setup and requirements of the Karachi campuses he could not spare adequate time for administrative and academic purposes of Islamabad campus and as such relied mostly on other senior officials, he added.
Three names were generally suggested by a government body to the HEC for president’s approval, he said, and expressed hope that he would be relieved as soon as the HEC got someone as an interim caretaker.
He said that despite efforts things could not be improved in the case of engineering and MSc telecommunication students of Islamabad. “We advertised the faculty posts for the programmes repeatedly, but response always remained discouraging,” he added, saying that the university is unable to find relevant staffs for training in engineering disciplines.
