ISLAMABAD: The vice chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Dr Javed Ashraf, has backtracked from a university statement that had implied that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and some faculty members were trying to remove the vice chancellor in an effort to protect land grabbers.

In a statement issued on Friday, following the visit of a three-person committee constituted by the HEC to investigate allegations of mismanagement, malpractice, nepotism and tampering with syndicate meeting minutes and financial matters.

The HEC constituted the fact-finding committee on Oct 13, 2016, to complete the inquiry within 15 days.

Two weeks after the committee was formed, the QAU issued a statement regarding encroachments of university land by former Senate chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari. Since then, the university has been trying to have its land retrieved from the land grabbers. Mr Bokhari has denied any involvement in encroachment on QAU land.

NA body directs vice chancellor to hold press conference, issue rebuttal

The mandate of the committee was later extended, according to the HEC. It visited the university on Thursday and interviewed several faculty members and employees.

The next day, the university said the HEC’s “defunct” committee had no mandate to conduct an inquiry, and that some faculty members together with the HEC had become active a couple of days before the Capital Development Authority (CDA) visited the university to start the demarcation of land and decided to proceed with an anti-encroachment drive in and around QAU.

“Attempts underway to remove QAU VC as efforts against land grabbing and drugs peddlers start showing results,” the press release had stated.

The university also named three faculty members, Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Dr Azhar Abbas Rizvi and Dr Aqeel Bokhari who last year actively opposed the vice chancellor’s move to sell land to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. The statement claimed these faculty members and the HEC had suddenly become active in the inquiry matter.

After the statement, faculty and students from the university asked whether Dr Ashraf’s decision to speak out against land grabbers had landed him in hot water or whether he was involved in maladministration and trying to divert attention with a campaign against powerful land grabbers to cover up an ongoing inquiry.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training, which met at the university on Wednesday, questioned the vice chancellor on the statement, who responded that the university spokesperson issued the press release without bringing it to his notice and apologised to the HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed.

The committee directed the vice chancellor to hold a press conference and issue a rebuttal. Dr Ahmed said: “Everyone is asking me how the HEC could protect land grabbers. It is not a simple case – the vice chancellor has to write a letter to the president, prime minister and others, informing them he has withdrawn the statement.”

The HEC chairman said he did not want to reveal everything at this stage, adding: “I know how many issues there are; how people were given undue promotions and how some were deprived. Let the probe committee complete its task.”

When contacted, newly elected QAU syndicate member Dr Jaspal told Dawn several serious allegations have been made against the university’s management. “Instead of responding to the allegations, it seems as if the vice chancellor and his team are mixing up the land grabbing matter and the inquiry committee protect the honourable vice chancellor,” he said.

He added that all the faculty members are with the vice chancellor in his move against land grabbers. “Our names were wrongly quoted in the press release and we are mulling filing a case in court,” he said.

During his presentation, Dr Ashraf told the standing committee that no professors were appointed in the last year, but when asked about two professors by the HEC chairman the vice chancellor could not give a response.

To this, committee member Dr Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti said the university was concealing facts, and the HEC chairman asked Dr Ashraf about the promotion and appointment of a professor whose case, according to Dr Ahmed, was rejected by the selection board.

The vice chancellor also briefed the committee on problems facing the university, such as a lack of a boundary wall and encroachments on the university’s campus.

Senior faculty member Dr Waseem Ahmed spoke about student drug use – specifically hashish and liquor – and the decline in such cases over the last month. He claimed liquor and hashish are available in a nearby slum consisting of 200 homes that he said also has gambling dens.

“Some of our employees are also involved in supplying drugs, while a local private hotel on Rawal Dam Chowk on Murree Road is a big liquor supplier to students,” he added.

The standing committee then constituted a subcommittee to look into the QAU’s affairs.

During the meeting, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal briefed the committee on various initiatives taken by the government to improve the higher education sector and assured QAU of full support for development projects in the coming budget.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2017