LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday appointed vice chancellors of Okara, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan universities.

The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) has issued the notifications to the effect.

Earlier, the HED had sent the names of the candidates for the post of vice chancellors for these universities to the interim chief minister after interviews were conducted by the respective search committees. But the caretaker government had halted the appointments after getting directions from the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

According to the notifications available with Dawn, Punjab University Dean of Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences Prof Dr Zakeria Zakar was appointed as vice chancellor of University of Okara, Prof Dr Muhammad Tufail as VC of Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Prof Dr Muhammad Nasir Afzal as the University of Sahiwal VC.

HED asks PHEC to submit panels of interviewers for nine other varsities

The VCs have been appointed for a four-year term.

The HED had also completed the process for appointing vice chancellor of the Information Technology University (ITU), Lahore, but no name was finalised.

However, the search committee constituted for University of Jhang started conducting interviews of the shortlisted 40 candidates on Monday which would continue till Tuesday (today).

The search committees for Women University, Multan, and University of Home Economics, Lahore, has not yet started the process.

Meanwhile, the HED has asked the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) to submit panels of interviewers for another nine universities in Punjab, including some newly-established and others where the term of the vice chancellors was about to expire.

The institutions are University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB), University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Taxila, Government College University (GCU), Faisalabad, University of Gujrat (UoG), Government College for Women University (GCWU), Faisalabad, Government College for Women University (GCWU), Sialkot, University of Narowal and University of Murree.

The tenure of VCs at UET, Lahore, IUB, GCU, Faisalabad and UoG will complete on Dec 16, 2018. The term of VCs of GCWU, Faisalabad, and GCWU, Sialkot, will expire on Sept 9 and 11, respectively. The position of the UET Taxila VC became vacant when the incumbent was appointed as VC of Punjab University.

The University of Narowal and University of Murree, established recently, are working without vice chancellors.

The search committee for each university will be constituted for a period of two years from the proposed panels, which will be tasked with interviewing the candidates who apply for the top slots at these universities. Apart from the panels for search committees, the HED has also tasked the PHEC with submitting a panel of experts for both the engineering universities - UET Lahore and Taxila.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2018