RAWALPINDI: The Pir Mehar Ali Shah-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) has been operating without a vice chancellor for two years.

Now, after the retirement of the pro-vice chancellor on Jan 3, the university is being run by a deputy registrar.

More than 46pc of the posts of heads of department have also been vacant for a few years as have been main posts such as that of the university’s treasurer, controller examination and registrar.

“The future of the university’s 1,100 students is at risk due to the shortage of faculty and the absence of a head,” a senior faculty member said.

He added that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had already closed down 43 degree programmes of the university due to the shortage of staff and facilities.

The university has not had a VC in two years, 46pc of head of dept posts are vacant as are other main posts

He said that after the retirement of Dr Rai Niaz as vice chancellor on Jan 24, 2017, the acting charge was given to pro-vice chancellor Dr Sarwat Naz Mirza who also retired on Jan 3 this year.

“Dr Mirza was the registrar of the university and was promoted as pro-vice chancellor. The post of registrar then fell vacant and the deputy registrar, Aqeel Sultan, who is a BPS-18 officer, was given additional charge as registrar,” he said.

The faculty member added that with the posts of vice chancellor and pro-vice chancellor empty, the varsity is being run by a BPS-18 deputy registrar.

“Due to the absence of a vice chancellor, a selection board was not constituted for the last two years for the recruitment of teaching faculty as the pro-vice chancellor does not have the authority to form such a board,” he explained.

He said the university had to hire lecturers and teaching staff on contract basis to run the day to day affairs so that students’ academic year is not affected.

There is no director for Advance Studies, University Institution of Information and Technology or deans for management sciences and agriculture engineering.

“In Sept 2018, HEC banned 14 MPhil and PhD degree programmes in the university and asked that admissions in these programmes be withdrawn as the university had not followed the rules for running them,” the faculty member said.

He added that HEC had made it clear that it would not allow the university to start the degree programmes till it overcame the shortage of staff and other facilities including buildings.

On the other hand, an official of the Punjab Higher Education Department told Dawn that no proposals for a vice chancellor for the university had been received yet.

However, he said Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, who is the varsity’s chancellor, will appoint a vice chancellor as soon as possible.

PMAS spokesperson Dr Nadeem Malik told Dawn that many posts are vacant in the university and that the provincial government has been informed of this.

He said HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency Committee will visit the university to check its facilities so that the degree programmes can be restored.

The registrar will look after the day to day affairs of the university in the absence of a head, he said, and that the registrar will not make decisions about the formation of a selection board and other policy matters.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2019