MULTAN: Governor Chaudhry Sarwar cancelled the appointment of a professor of International Relations Department of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) for possessing fake experience certificate and directed the university administration to initiate the selection process afresh strictly in accordance with law/statutes of the university.

As per details, Assistant Professor Dr Syed Shahid Hussain Bukhari of the Department of Political Science of the BZU filed a petition with Governor Sarwar, the chancellor of the university, challenging the selection of Dr Muqarab Akbar as professor by the board, in its meeting on July 13, 2018 while stating that Dr Akbar and he were shortlisted for the post and were evaluated from the experts/referees.

He stated all the three referees had given priority to Dr Akbar and the board recommended his appointment for the post of professor despite the fact that Dr Akbar had submitted a fake teaching experience certificate of a law college.

The petitioner was given the opportunity of hearing by the governor where he pointed out certain discrepancies in the appointment with regard to his experience. He contended he was deprived of his right due to submission of the fake experience certificate by the respondent from April 1, 2002 to March 30, 2003 while claiming that Dr Akbar was enrolled in the college as an LLB student during the same period and how it was possible that a student could simultaneously teach in the same college where he was a student. Dr Bukhari pointed out that Dr Akbar did not claim this experience when he had applied for the post of lecturer and later for the post of associate professor in the Political Science Department of the same university.

He further stated that whole process of Dr Akbar’s selection was proceeded in the absence of the chairman International Relations Department who was either kept suspended from the process or was kept uniformed. He claimed that the first scrutiny committee had raised objection to the eligibility of Dr Akbar but he was accommodated through officers/teachers holding additional temporary charge.

The petitioner stated that the salary slips submitted by the college were in Calibri font which was yet not introduced at the time when Dr Akbar was teaching the slips seemed to have been forged and factitious.

“The meeting of scrutiny committee held on December 29, 2017 contains signatures of three experts and only one of them signed with date and the other two experts signed without dates while one expert namely Dr Muhammad Farooq did not sign the minutes of the committee,” Dr Bukhari argued.

He further said that the selection board had met twice on July 13, 2018 at 10am and 7pm to recommend Dr Akbar which cast shadows of doubt on the process of the selection. He also submitted documents related to joining of Dr Akbar and his transfer notification according to which he had submitted his joining report on Dec 14, 2018 which was notified on Dec 26. When he was not sure that he would be kept in the IR department, he had submitted application for his transfer to the Political Science Department from the IR Department on Dec 14, even before the issuance of his notification of joining.

Replying to the governor regarding allegations against him, Dr Akbar stated that there were many examples where MPhil and PhD students while completing their degrees were teaching elsewhere and getting experience simultaneously and he was appointed as professor with the approval of the Syndicate. He stated holding of two meetings of the selection board on the same day was the matter that could be explained by the university.

The chancellor, in his decision, stated that one of the members Syndicate Dr Imran Sharif Chaudhry had also submitted his note of dissent, pointing out glaring illegalities in the process of appointment while the university representative also failed to offer any satisfactory answer. He stated the scrutiny committee and the selection board had conducted the process of selection in a haphazard manner.

“The principles of merit and transparency have been ignored apparently to favour the respondent. I am minded to declare the selection of Dr Akbar as illegal/null and void being violative of the law since the same was made without observing codal formalities and without scrutinizing his documents properly,” the order stated.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2019