LAHORE: Amendments to service statutes approved by syndicates of public sector universities of Punjab have not been given a final nod by the chancellor/governor for several years due to inaction of the higher education department (HED).

The amendments to service statutes – criteria and prerequisites for jobs -- and many other proposals of universities are lying pending in the Civil Secretariat instead of being forwarded to the governor/chancellor for many years.

Sources told Dawn that the amendments by Lahore College for Women University, Government College University Lahore, University of Engineering, University of Sargodha, University of Gujrat, Government College Women University Faisalabad and others were pending with the Punjab HED.

A public university vice chancellor (VC) told Dawn that the bureaucracy had hampered autonomy of universities and the role of their syndicates. Secretaries of various departments were appointed as syndicate members and their agenda also circulated to them in advance. He claimed that the secretaries either did not attend syndicate meetings or joined them without preparation, and later raised unnecessary objections over the body’s role that resulted in unnecessary delays.

A university registrar requesting anonymity said that posts of deans in some universities were lying vacant and the varsities had sent the cases to the HED for approval, but even after five months the cases were not forwarded to the chancellor. The department had become a ‘graveyard of files’ as they had a huge burden of work pending of colleges and universities but lacked the human resource, he added.

A Punjab Higher Education Commission official told Dawn that under the service statutes all universities had to approach the chancellor through the HED and chief minister’s office for approval of decisions taken in their syndicate meetings. It took several months to get approval from the chancellor for every decision taken by the selection board, which was hampering the varsities’ autonomy. “Universities should be allowed to directly approach the chancellor,” he said.

HED Additional Secretary Tayyab Zia told Dawn that the universities were responsible for delay in the process. Although secretaries were members of syndicates, they did not have the decisive vote. “Decisions are made in a syndicate on majority basis,” he claimed.

He further said that each request made by a syndicate, especially related to service statutes, had to be vetted by multiple departments, including higher education, law, finance, services and general administration, additional chief secretary, chief secretary, special deputy secretary at chief minister’s secretariat, principal secretary, and the chief minister before forwarding it to the chancellor.

“The secretary forwards the summary to the minister who sends it to the law department and then the chief secretary, who forwards it to the chief minister. After this a summary goes to the chancellor for approval,” he explained.

He denied causing any delay, adding that if a candidate filed a writ petition in court they had to wait for the outcome.

Talking about the current delay, Mr Zia said earlier some of the cases were delayed because the interim set-up left it to the incoming government and later the post of HED secretary was vacant. Most of the cases were delayed as the universities’ decisions were challenged in court.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2018