PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to further change the criteria for the appointment of vice-chancellors to the public sector universities in the province.

In future, after the passage of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2016, by the provincial assembly, the employees working on the administrative posts in universities will become eligible to contest for the VC posts.

Currently, only academicians can hold such positions.

An agreement in this respect came during a recent meeting of the provincial assembly’s select committee made to examine the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which is pending with the house.

Like academicians, administrative staff members, too, will become vice-chancellors of public sector varsities

“In future, the universities’ employees working on the administrative posts can become VCs if they have PhD qualification and 20 years administrative experience,” a source said.

He said under the existing law i.e. the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act 2012, only academicians could become VCs.

For the consideration of the opposition members’ proposed amendments to the law, the provincial assembly had formed a select committee headed by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

Other members of the committee were law minister Imtiaz Shahid, special assistant to the chief minister on higher education Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, ANP’s Jaffar Shah and JUI-F’s Mufti Fazl Ghafoor.

The administrative staff of the universities had strong reservations about the major amendments to the KPUA 2012 made by the PTI-led provincial government some two years ago under which the administrative staff was ineligible for the VC positions, the sources said.

According to them, the same things were repeated in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendments) Ordinance 2016 which was promulgated on February 9.

The sources said thereafter, the administrative staff of the universities began lobbying for amendments to the law to pave the way to be in the running for the VC posts.

They said the second amendment to be incorporated in the pending bill and agreed by the government with the opposition was regarding the appointment of Class-IV employees in the public sector universities.

The sources said after the incorporation of that amendment, only the local residents were to be appointed as Class-IV employees to the respective universities.

They said the provincial government had introduced major changes to the KPUA 2012 through an ordinance promulgated on February 9, through which drastic changes were made in different provisions, including the provisions related to appointment and removal of a vice chancellor.

The sources said amendments were introduced through the ordinance as the previous criteria established by the PTI government under its reform agenda were hardly fulfilled by any candidate.

They said the constitutional life of the ordinance was 90 days but the assembly extended it for 90 more days and sent the bill to the select committee.

The sources said the government didn’t pass the bill as the opposition parties had reservation about the amendments introduced through the ordinance.

According to them, for appointment of VCs, the current law states that a VC for the general universities shall be a PhD in any discipline with good academic record, while for an engineering university, PhD in a field of engineering and for technology university, PhD in a field of technology etc.

“The VC must have experience in the field of higher education of at least 15 years in teaching or research in a university/ well-established institution of repute at the post-graduate levels.

“Also, the VC shall also have excellent research publication record at least minimum meets the criteria for appointment as professor in the university with minimum 15 peer reviewed and Higher Education Commission recognised research publication. The VC is required to have at least five years of administrative/postdoctoral research experience in the field of higher education.”

The sources said the administrative staff had missed the opportunity to become VCs in the ongoing appointment process for the nine public sector universities.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016