LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif conducted on Thursday interviews of 30 candidates shortlisted for the posts of vice-chancellors of 10 universities in Punjab.

The names of the selected VCs would be notified soon after Eidul Fitr, a source privy to the development told Dawn here.

VC Search Committee members and Punjab Higher Education Commission officials were also present during interviews that started at around 1.30pm and continued till an hour or so before Iftar.

“There may be some surprises (in the notification),” said the source.

The Punjab government had in April this year advertised the posts of VCs of Government College University (GCU), Lahore; University of Education, Lahore; Lahore College for Women University (LCWU); University of Sargodha; Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan; Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi; Government Sadiq College Women University, Bahawalpur; The Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan; Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Information Technology, Multan; and Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan.

Headed by Syed Babar Ali and comprising Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi, Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin and Mrs Irum Bukhari, the VCs search committee had in mid-May completed interviews of 178 candidates. However, 16 of them were called for re-interview.

The committee forwarded names of 10 candidates, one each for a university, to the chief minister while expressing dissatisfaction with the criteria for the selection of VCs as well as the candidates shortlisted after the process.

Some committee members had also expressed reservations as to why the performance of incumbent VCs was not made criterion for their selection instead of asking them to apply.

A high-powered committee was constituted by the chief minister and a proposal to re-advertise the posts while making PhD degree the only ‘preferable requirement’ for applying for the coveted posts.

However, the chief minister decided to complete the process.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play