PESHAWAR: Putting the controversy over the vice-chancellor’s appointment to the University of Swat to rest, the provincial government on Tuesday filled the vacancy on permanent basis after a delay of two years.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak remained at loggerheads over the appointment adversely affecting the university’s administrative, financial and academic affairs.

The university remained without a permanent VC for two years with students being the ultimate sufferers of the CM-governor confrontation, sources said.

They said the absence of permanent VC had almost stalled the construction of the university’s own building and that the varsity established in 2010 functioned in rented buildings at six different places.

On Tuesday, the higher education department notified the appointment of Prof Mohammad Jamal Khan as the university’s permanent VC with immediate effect.

After CM’s prolonged resistance, HED notifies governor’s nominee for vacancy on law dept’s advice

Prof Jamal is a professor of the University of Agriculture Peshawar and currently heads the university’s Directorate of Advanced Studies and Research.

The last permanent VC of the Swat university was Prof Jehanzaib Khan, who had retired on Dec 2, 2015.

After his retirement, Prof Jehan Bakht was made the acting VC, who served in the office for around 15 months until he was made the VC of the Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak.

Thereafter, the HED asked University of Swat registrar Hassan Sher to look after the affairs of the university. He did the job until Tuesday.

The search committee for the VC’s appointment had shortlisted three candidates, including Prof Shafiqur Rehman, Prof Afzal Khan and Prof Mohammad Jamal Khan for the vacant position.

In line with the laid-down procedure, the HED forwarded the names of shortlisted candidates to the chief minister for picking one of them as the VC a few months ago, sources said.

They said the chief minister selected Prof Shafiqur Rehman and forwarded the summary to the governor showing his choice for approval.

However, a controversy surfaced as the governor returned the summary to the chief minister replacing the name of Mr Rehman with Mohammad Jamal Khan’s. Both the governor and chief minister claimed they had the power to appoint the chief minister.

Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012, the chief minister has the power to appoint the vice chancellors to the public sector universities.

Section 12 of the law states, “The Vice-Chancellor shall be appointed by the chancellor on the advice of government from a panel of three candidates recommended by the Academic Search Committee.”

The sources said under the KPUA 2012, the governor could return the summary for the VC’s appointment once with observation and that he was bound by the law to approve it if the chief minister sent it back.

They said the governor citing the Swat university’s regulations replaced the chief minister’s choice.

Section 12 of the University of Swat Regulation, 2010, states, “the Vice-Chancellor shall be appointed by the chancellor from a panel of three candidates proposed by the search committee.”

The sources said the governor also justified the move insisting that the chief minister had the power to appoint the VC under the KPUA 2012 but that law hadn’t been extended to the Malakand division, where Swat district was located.

After several months of controversy and resistance by the chief minister, the HED finally notified the name of the governor’s nominee as the VC in light of the opinion of the law department and advocate general.

“We again sent a summary to the home department for the extension of the KPUA 2012 to the Malakand division to apply the law to the universities functioning in the region. The summary sought the approval of the president of Pakistan time and again but to no avail,” a senior HED official told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2017