LAHORE: Delay in appointment of the vice chancellors (VCs) of 10 universities in Punjab has started affecting the working of these institutions.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had on July 23 conducted interviews of 30 candidates shortlisted for the posts of VCs of 10 universities in Punjab but the names of the selected VCs have yet to be notified.

Administrative issues have also started emerging in the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) and Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi, which have been working without vice chancellors since July 13 while the VCs of Government College University and the University of Education, Lahore, retired on July 24.

There has also been concern among teaching and non-teaching staff of four such universities in the provincial capital whether or not they would get their salaries for the month of July.

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

Headed by Syed Babar Ali and comprising Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi, Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Dr Muhammad 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 also 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 chief minister decided to complete the ongoing process apprehending strong 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, July 29th, 2015

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