MULTAN, Dec 6: A meeting of the Bahauddin Zakariya University syndicate held here on Saturday remained inconclusive on vital issues while the vice-chancellor reportedly withdrew an agenda item about the appointment of Professor Emeritus.

The syndicate had a wide agenda to discuss, including the appointment of Professor Emeritus, substandard construction of university’s convocation hall, decisions taken by the vice-chancellor using emergency powers and action against a professor under ‘misconduct’ charges. The meeting was presided over by the BZU VC, Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry. Three of the 15-member syndicate were however absent.

Sources in the syndicate said that the VC withdrew the matter of appointment of Professor Emeritus from the agenda of the meeting once for all, saying ‘the matter has become controversial’.

Taking note of a press report, the Governor’s office reportedly conveyed to the BZU on Friday that the sitting VC could not run for the office of the Professor Emeritus.

The fate of the three suspended university officials in connection with the substandard construction of convocation hall could not be decided as only one of them was present on the occasion.

It may be added here that the university had issued show cause notices under the removal from services ordinance to its former project director Mian Aziz Ahmed, engineer Aftab Ahmed Sahu and assistant engineer-II Mian Allah Bakhsh for the substandard construction work on the multi-million project of convocation hall. The chargesheeted officials had submitted their replies and the syndicate meeting was likely to decide their fate.

A heated debate took place among members of the syndicate over the ‘excessive’ use of emergency powers by the VC under section 16(3)A of the University Act on behalf of various bodies as 48 such orders were placed for approval before the syndicate.

Some of the members pointed that rules and regulations could not be amended through emergency powers because there were proper forums to take care of them. Consequently, the syndicate reportedly did not give its nod to the decisions aimed at changing rules and regulations.

The syndicate also took up the matter of proposed action against Dr Akhtar Ali Malik, dean of the faculty of engineering, as the university management had accused him of communicating ‘unlawfully’ some official documents to the agencies, including National Accountability Bureau. A majority of the syndicate members were of the view that there was no harm in moving the courts directly if the official did not hide his or her identity. At this, the chair deferred the matter for the next meeting saying, ‘The university management will come up again with better preparation’.

The principal of the Nishter Medical College was also present in the meeting despite the fact that NMC had nothing to do with the BZU after its affiliation with the University of Health Sciences.