GUJRAT: A member of the syndicate of the University of Gujrat (UoG) has accused vice chancellor Dr Ziaul Qayyum of misuse of authority, committing gross violations of rules in hiring and firing of faculty and staff, allotting houses and offering monetary benefits to the blue-eyed.

Dr Suleman Tahir, dean faculty of engineering, also points out incomplete quorum in the 36th meeting of the syndicate when three of the eight members were not present and two members Dr Farishullah, also a dean, and ex-MPA retired Maj Moin Nawaz Warraich left the meeting soon after signing the attendance sheet.

He made these revelations in a letter he wrote on Aug 26 to the syndicate chairman (the VC) and sent the copies to the governor, and the chairmen of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) for necessary action.

He has sought the constitution of a committee to investigate the hiring done in the last three years as well as the other issues he has highlighted in the letter to fix the responsibility of what he says wrongdoings in that period.

The letter says the VC office had victimised the faculty hired before the appointment of Ziaul Qayyum as three professors left the varsity and almost half of the employees are facing inquiries. It says many employees were suspended or terminated to hire the new ones leading to endless litigation.

“The ranking of UoG has gone down from 23 to 12 according to the HEC ranking and research,” it says.

According to the UoG act, at least eight members should be present in a syndicate meeting for deliberations and decisions and the 36th meeting lacked the requirement.

Dr Tahir alleged that the syndicate chairman was a complainant against him and he had constituted a committee for probe. Other than the VC, only Allama Iqbal Open University VC Prof Shahid Siddique, the chief executive office education Gujrat and Dr Faheem Malik, dean faculty of sciences, were present. He said the decisions and actions taken in that meeting were illegal.

“I did not seek police help to lodge an FIR against VC Ziaul Qayyum who is telling lies to mislead the House (syndicate) and also kept me on a look after charge for three years which is against the government law,” Dr Tahir says. He says he is not being paid for the extra workload of evening and weekend classes for the last three years.

Many employees from grade 1 to 16 were appointed from other than Gujrat region after cancellation of the contract of those already working.

The sheer violation of rules and government laws have also been highlighted in allotment of houses, whereas many consultants and officials are residing free of cost in the four guest houses for which they are not even paying the utility bills, alleges the dean.

Four deans of the UoG had reportedly tendered resignations over alleged maltreatment but administration members intervened and made them withdraw the decision.

Meanwhile, Dr Tahir says he is under pressure after an incident in which the VC had allegedly misbehaved with his wife, a faculty member of the Nawaz Sharif Medical College.

UoG spokesman Sheikh Rasheed did not come up with a satisfactory response to the queries by this correspondent.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2018