CHAKWAL: The faculty members of Government Postgraduate College Chakwal in a unanimous resolution demanded the immediate removal of Deputy Director Colleges Professor Nasir Mehmood Awan over his alleged “derogatory, prejudiced and vindictive attitude” towards them and the college principal.

On the other hand, in a letter to the director public instructions (DPI) colleges, Mr Awan also sought “strict disciplinary action” against the principal of the college for failing to run the affairs of the institution adequately.

A cold war has been running between the teachers of the college and Mr Awan since he took charge in Chakwal in 2013. On December 18 last year, Mr Awan paid a surprise visit to the college and found the principal, Professor Mohammad Aslam Kahut, and some teachers absent.

Later, he sent a letter to the DPI colleges stating that when he reached the college the principal and some lecturers were not present. “As the principal lives hardly a few furlongs away from the college, he reached the college on learning about the visit of the undersigned and seemed to be offended due to the inconvenience caused by the undersigned’s visit.”

He accused the principal of exhibiting “a very arrogant and dismissive manner” towards him when he asked the former about the dengue larva detection traps and a justification about the drop in the enrolment.

Later, according to Mr Awan, the principal “flatly refused” to accompany the former towards classrooms, laboratories and examination centres for an inspection.

According to Mr Awan, the college principal told him that there were no classes on Fridays and Saturdays. “The undersigned reminded him that there were MA/MSc and BS classes scheduled in their timetable. the principal told the undersigned that he might go alone or take the head clerk along for the inspection.

He wrote that such reactions were witnessed if inspections were conducted honestly and fairly.

“The situation demands that undisciplined elements must be dealt with sternly so that the system works otherwise the colleagues of the undersigned will continue to send the inspection reports from their bedrooms and people like the undersigned will be considered crazy which will result in the collapse of the system,” he added.

He said if strict action was not taken against the principal, it would produce serious repercussions such as setting a bad precedent for others and the principal would feel encouraged to mete out the same treatment to the officers tasked to conduct inspections.

The report by Mr Awan against the principal prompted a strong reaction by the lecturers of the college who held a meeting under the banner of the local chapter of Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association on January 8 and passed a unanimous resolution demanding Mr Awan’s immediate removal from the post.

The resolution condemned the “insulting and derogatory attitude” of the DDC against the principal and termed his accusations “baseless, invented and fabricated.” It also said Mr Awan contested elections for a seat of the PPLA in 2013 but was defeated. This defeat led him to make the teachers of the college “victim of his hostility, rivalry and vindictiveness.”

They said in the recent results of MA and MSc conducted by the University of Gujrat, the college grabbed the first three positions in physics while a student of MA English topped the university.

When contacted, the deputy director colleges, Professor Nasir Mehmood Awan, told Dawn that he went to the college to conduct an inspection on December 18 and found principal and some lecturers absent. “There is an order from the higher authorities to conduct two inspections of a college in a month. I conducted the inspection on merit and if someone gets offended by my inspections, which I conduct honestly, I would not care it,” he added.

On the other hand, the college principal, Professor Mohammad Aslam Kahut, while refuting the allegations against him, said he had sent his reply to the higher authorities.

“I was present on duty on December 18 but was not at my office because on that very day I had to visit two banks to collect the question papers for an exam.”

He said throughout Punjab the college was ahead in BS programmes. Every year students of this college grab positions.” He said the accusation of a drop in enrolment was also baseless as the number of students in the college increased compared to the last years.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2016