KARACHI: Grappling with staff protests over non-payment of salaries, the Karachi University (KU) vice chancellor was questioned by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday over misuse of university land and “unauthorised payments”.

According to sources, it is the first time that the KU vice chancellor has been called in by the investigative agency, that earlier summoned the university registrar, finance director and officials of the estate, accounts and engineering departments of the university.

Sources said that KU vice chancellor Prof Mohammad Qaiser recorded his statement over allegations of large-scale irregularities, including financial corruption, on the campus.

A NAB official, on condition of anonymity, said Prof Qaiser was questioned over a number of allegations ranging from irregularities in the university assets to provision of “illegal leave encashment and overtime” to employees.

“Prof Qaiser has been heading the university for four years now and he’s responsible for the actions that have taken place during this time on the campus, though he may not be directly involved in any wrongdoing,” said a NAB official in attendance at the meeting.

One important subject of the NAB investigation, he said, was the misuse of university land; there were cases in which commercial units had been allowed to operate either without an agreement or valid documents.

“These illegal actions have deprived the university from what could be a substantial source of income,” he explained, adding that the commercial units included canteens, shops, banks and a petrol pump.

Regarding leave encashment, the NAB official categorically stated that “the way the university is giving it to its employees is illegal.”

“Under the government policy, leave encashment is given to retired employees and is always subject to availability of funds. When you don’t have sufficient funds to pay salaries, how can you give leave encashment to your staff?” he asked.

The other violation was that the university awarded leave encashment on gross salary, which, under the government, should be based on the basic pay.

He also expressed serious reservations about the method used by the university to award overtime to its employees. “Overtime is not allowed to employees of grade-17 and above as per government policy. But, university employees (from grade one to 20) are all receiving it and this has been going on for years.”

According to him, overtime is not a regular payment and the administration should make judicious use of it when needed.

“In the case of the university, however, overtime is awarded to employees throughout the year without any analysis of whether there is a real need for it, and what is the performance of the employee during his or her actual working hours,” he said.

The university, he claimed, spent Rs60m and Rs90m annually under the heads of overtime and leave encashment respectively.

Over 50 quarters on the campus, he said, were under “illegal occupation”. The occupants neither had paid house ceiling amount nor utility bills.

On the administration’s response during the investigation, he said: “It has been cooperative so far and has admitted lapses on its part. We can understand the situation the university officials are in as the university has been working under political pressures for a long time.”

Upon contact, the university registrar refused to make any comment, insisting that the university finance director should be approached on this issue.

However, the finance director was not available for comment.

Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) picked up two university employees from the campus who were allegedly involved in fake degree cases late Tuesday afternoon.

It is noteworthy that investigative and law enforcement agencies have been actively pursuing criminal cases involving KU officials for some months.

The NAB, which formally started its investigations into the KU affairs this year in March, had raided the campus twice over a month ago. The university officials had no prior knowledge about the raids during which they questioned some estate and finance staff and also took away some documents.

Rangers also raided the campus in April and took into custody five university employees; three of them were later released.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2016