LAHORE: The Vice Chancellors Search Committee will submit a list of shortlisted candidates to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif next week for the appointment of VCs in four public universities.

The five-member search committee headed by Syed Babar Ali has interviewed most of the 90 candidates applied for the slot of vice chancellors of Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University, Sargodha University and Nawaz Sharif Engineering University, Multan.

“We will complete the process of interviewing the candidates for the slot of vice chancellors in the four public universities in a few days and submit a panel of three candidates for each university to the chief minister for appointment,” Punjab Higher Education Secretary Irfan Ali told Dawn on Thursday. He said the committee also interviewed those (through Skype) candidates who were out of the country.

Some 27 faculty members of the Punjab University, including VC Prof Mujahid Kamran, have applied for the slot (of the PU VC). Mr Kamran is looking for third term.

Last month, the Lahore High Court had stayed appointment process for the post of PU’s vice chancellor restraining the Punjab government from finalising names of the hopefuls till its decision on a petition questioning the jurisdiction of the government in the matter.

To a question about this, the higher education secretary said: “The court has not stopped the committee from its work.”

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2016