ISLAMABAD: A six-member search committee, headed by minister for education Balighur Rehman, is scheduled to meet on July 15 to appoint the heads of three universities in the federal capital.

Though the candidates had been short-listed for the posts of two vice chancellors and a rector by the now defunct committee, the new search committee can decide to re-advertise the posts or start the process of short listing the candidates afresh.

In 2013, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) introduced a policy under which new heads of universities would be appointed before the expiry of the contract of the incumbents. So on December 15, 2013, an advertisement for the appointment of the vice chancellors Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and the rector International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) was published in the press. At that time, the seat of the IIUI rector was vacant while the two other universities had their regular VCs. The QAU vice chancellor, Prof Masoom Yasinzai, retired in February 2014 followed by the VC of AIOU, Dr Nazir Ahmad Sanghi, in March. However, their replacements could not be made even six months after advertising the posts. The search committee was also reconstituted twice.

An official of the Ministry of Education and Trainings (MET) requesting not to be identified told Dawn that HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, the former executive director of the commission, was the convener of the first committee.

QAU, AIOU and IIUI without heads for many months

“Members of the search committee were: Dr Ishrat Husain, Dr Sohail Naqvi, Dr Sania Nishtar and Prof Junaid Zaidi. But there were reservations that the committee had no representation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, rural Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan. Though Dr Sania Nishtar belonged to KP, she has been living in Islamabad since long,” he said.So in June, a new search committee was formed on the direction of Minister Balighur Rehman. Chairperson HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed and Secretary MET Raja Ahsan were nominated as members of the new committee. It was also decided that four experts from different provinces would be included in the committee. The experts are: Dr Ishrat Husain, Dr U.A.G. Isani, Dr Ahsan Junaid Zaidi and Dr Sara Safdar.

As far as the appointment of the university heads is concerned, the new selection process will be completed by the ministry rather than the HEC. Later, three names for each university will be sent to the president of Pakistan, who is the chancellor of the universities, for final nominations.

The official said 150 applications were received for the post of the AIOU head, 129 for the VC QAU and 90 for the post of the IIUI rector. Some applicants also applied for more than one post.

He said around 15 candidates were short listed for each post before the formation of the new second search committee in June.

Talking to Dawn, Minister Balighur Rehman confirmed that the committee would meet on July 15.

“During the meeting, it will be decided if the posts should be re-advertised or the candidates should be short listed again. But the heads of the universities will be appointed as soon as possible,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2014