The International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) has been facing several administrative issues as well as problems regarding the quality of education.

Having had 24 of its PhD programmes suspended, permanently or temporarily, due to academic deficiencies in December last year, the university is now embroiled in the issue of appointing two vice presidents.The university recently appointed two junior faculty members as vice presidents without advertising the posts and bypassing several experienced professors.

The appointments were made during a recent meeting of the university’s board of governors, chaired by IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai. Prof Dr Mohammad Munir who was serving as Shariah Academy director general was appointed VP planning and finance and Prof Dr Naveed Aqdas, the dean faculty of engineering and technology, was appointed VP higher education and research.Last year the university had advertised the post of VP and received several applications including from senior IIUI faculty members.

The advertisements say the applicant “should be a full professor preferably holding the position for almost five years”.

However, the two recently appointed VPs have only completed their PhDs in recent years and were ‘picked’ for the positions by the board of governors, a decision which Dr Yasinzai defended.

“We advertised the posts but could not get suitable candidates, which is why we gave our faculty members the chance to work as VPs,” Mr Yasinzai told Dawn.

Asked why the posts were not advertised again if the university did not find suitable candidates the first time, he said: “That is a time consuming process and we had already lost a lot of time”.

Talking about the closing down and suspension of PhD programmes, he said that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) did not order for the permanent closure of the programmes, “rather they had some observations”. He said the university has completed its reply which will be submitted to the HEC after addressing some issues.

Published in Dawn February 17th, 2017