KARACHI: President Mamnoon Hussain in his capacity as chancellor of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fauuast) has called a meeting of its senate on Saturday in order to avoid legal complications that could make the institution dysfunctional, sources told Dawn.

They said that the president was asked to intervene because Fauuast Vice Chancellor Prof Zafar Iqbal, against whom university teachers had lodged many complaints of alleged malpractices, had been ignoring the chancellor’s directives in this regard that could lead to a legal impasse.

According to the sources, no session of the university senate has been held for a year, which is mandatory under university rules and regulations.

The letter from the presidential secretariat released to the university registrar on Dec 18 shows that it was in response to a request sent by the university to adjourn the upcoming senate meeting.

“The order of the Sindh High Court passed in Suit No. 1647 of 2014, as mentioned in your under reply fax, doesn’t prohibit the convening of the subject senate meeting. Nor there is any other restraining order in the field, as to our knowledge, regarding the university senate meeting,” the letter says.

Pointing out reasons for holding the senate meeting, the letter says that the term of seven senate members is expiring on Dec 23, 2014 after which the body would become dysfunctional.

“As per Section 17 of the governing statute viz Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Islamabad, Ordinance No. CXIX of 2002, the senate is the body responsible for governance of the university. Therefore, to avoid any deadlock or legal impediment in the university’s functioning, the subject meeting is imperative.”

Citing sub-section 5 of the same section, the letter says two meetings of the senate are mandatory in a calendar year and the present vice chancellor was reminded a few times about it.

“No senate meeting, however, had been held since Oct, 2013. This inaction on part of the vice chancellor is a gross violation of the law,” the letter says, advising the registrar (Prof Fahimuddin) to perform his statutory duties as secretary of the senate and prepare and circulate the agenda for the meeting scheduled at Aiwan-i-Saddar, Islamabad, on Saturday.

The vice chancellor and the registrar were not available for comments.

It is noteworthy that teachers of the federal Urdu university (that has two campuses in Karachi and one in Islamabad) have been protesting against the alleged administrative and financial irregularities of Prof Zafar Iqbal since he assumed powers as the university vice chancellor two years ago.

Two committees have so far been made to investigate the allegations against him. One body resigned while the second was challenged in the Sindh High Court by the university and the administration was able to get a stay order against it. Earlier, the academic institution had suffered for a long time due to absence of a full-time vice chancellor.

Upon contact, senior Urdu university teachers appreciated the chancellor’s step and said that it would save the university from facing a legal bottleneck and help take matters in positive direction.

“A meeting of the nomination committee would be held prior to the senate session being held today. The committee would recommend three names for each vacant seat, which would then be presented to the senate for consideration and, then, forwarded to the chancellor for the final approval,” explained member of the Urdu university teachers’ executive committee, Gulshan campus, Dr Iftikhar Ahmed Tahiri.

According to him, the university currently is being run by a single person and that is the vice chancellor, who is not accountable to anyone since he hasn’t called a single session of the senate for a year.

“All hiring and firing powers are in his hands, with the result that nepotism and corruption has grown dramatically in the institution in two years. No selection boards for administrative appointments are being held while three key posts (registrar, controller examination and treasurer) are occupied by acting heads,” he said.

“When accountability and collective wisdom is in place with a body like a 17-member senate, matters are decided in a fair manner,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2014