LAHORE, June 3: The Punjab government has directed vice chancellors of all public sector universities in the province not to initiate any recruitment process.

The directive has caused problems for many universities, which have advertised posts or initiated recruitment process after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lifted the ban on recruitments.

The Punjab government banned recruitment to all posts on Jan 18 this year and this was conveyed to all vice-chancellors on Jan 31 by the provincial higher education department. The department lifted another ban on recruitments, diversion of funds etc., imposed by the ECP, and conveyed this to VCs on April 26.

After receiving a letter saying that the ban has been lifted, vice-chancellors of various universities advertised various posts and initiated the recruitment process.

The provincial higher education department on May 29 issued another letter, informing the vice-chancellors that the ban imposed by the department on Jan 18 was still intact. It directed that universities should not initiate any recruitment process i.e. advertisement, short listing, test, interviews etc. until the Punjab government lifts the ban.

University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Vice-Chancellor Lt-Gen retired Muhammad Akram said the department created confusion by banning even advertisements to fill the vacant posts. He said the recruitment process was quite lengthy and final thing was selection. He said university’s sub-campus needed faculty and officials to begin and run classes. Delay in recruitment would tantamount to delay in classes and completion of courses.

Government College University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khaleequr Rehman stressed the newly-installed government must lift the ban on recruitments immediately and allow universities to continue their recruitment process.

University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar A Khan said almost 50 per cent of faculty had been on the move and the varsity was always in need of fresh appointments at all levels. He said the university was establishing its sub-campuses in Vehari and Layyah and needed faculty and support staff. “The PC-I of any new project contains creation of new posts and those posts need to be filled to run the project,” he added.

Stating that provincial department officials did not know the working of universities, Prof Khan said the UAF had double amount of research funding from independent agencies than its recurring budget. “Donor agencies want results and without recruiting scientists and researchers (for which the money is available in funding), no results can be produced,” he said.