LAHORE: Appointment of vice chancellors of 10 Punjab universities further delayed as a summary containing names of the ‘final candidates’ for the slots sent to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had some ‘surprises’.

“The CM may re-interview the candidates named in the summary forwarded by the Higher Education Department Commission before making a final decision,” a source told Dawn.

There had been much speculation about the appointments to the coveted posts but no name has been finalised yet. “Instead of totally depending on the bureaucracy, the chief minister decided to check the credentials and abilities of the aspirants through his own, independent sources,” said the source.

The CM had on July 23 conducted interviews of 30 candidates shortlisted for the posts of VCs of 10 universities and asked the Higher Education Department to send a summary containing the names of the selected VCs.

Likely to re-interview candidates

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

Headed by Syed Babar Ali and comprising Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi, Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Dr 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 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 was initiated.

However, the CM decided to complete the ongoing process apprehending criticism from senior faculty members of universities on whose demand the condition of PhD degree was included in the eligibility criterion for the post of VC.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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