HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah is reported to have recommended the name of Dr Bikha Ram to the governor for the post of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) vice chancellor.

According to university sources, the CM had interviewed three candidates — the dean surgery of LUMHS Prof Dr Abdul Razzaq Sheikh who is also a councillor of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), the chairman of the department of medicine and former research director at the university Prof Dr Bikha Ram and a retired professor of paediatrics at the university, Dr Akbar Nizamani — who were shortlisted by the search committee headed by retired Justice Deedar Shah.

Dr Bikha Ram — who has about four-and-a-half more years to reach the age of superannuation — had emerged as a potential candidate for the post after the name of a junior candidate, Dr Anila Attaur Rehman, was dropped in the final shortlisting in the wake of protest by the university’s senior faculty.

Prof Dr Bikha Ram hails from Tharparkar and had been one of the 26 members of a steering committee that had drafted drought mitigation and management policy for the district. The committee’s recommendations were to be considered by the provincial assembly and were also to lead to the establishment of the Thar Development Authority (TDA).

Prof Ram is considered to be close to the outgoing VC, Prof Dr Noshad Ahmed Sheikh.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2017