LAHORE: An inquiry conducted by the Higher Education Department (HED), on the orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC), has found illegalities in appointments and promotions of senior members of the faculty as well as the management of the University of Sargodha (UoS).

A member of the public Shafiq Mirza filed a petition in the LHC that the university filled posts, such as additional registrar and additional treasurer, without advertising them. Former VC Riazul Haq Tariq appointed his relatives and also awarded them undue promotions.

He said incumbent VC Ishtiaq Ahmad also continued with the same practice and made a number of illegal appointments. He said the Punjab auditor general had objected to the illegal appointments.

He asked the court to strike down the illegal appointments and order the government authorities to take action against the responsible officials.

The LHC directed the Punjab government and the HED on a petition questioning alleged illegal appointments and promotions at the UoS.

The HED secretary launched a probe into the matter and submitted the first part of the report in the court on May 13, 2019. The remaining part will be submitted on the next date of hearing.

The HED, in its report available with Dawn, revealed Mr Haq was illegally appointed as assistant registrar, now additional registrar, Muhammad Maqsood as secretary to the VC BS-17, now additional treasurer, Fiazul Haq sub-engineer, now deputy treasurer, Maqsood Ahmad junior clerk and now deputy controller, Noshaba Izhar administrative officer and now as warden, Muhammad Maqsood in BS-16 and now as assistant treasurer in BS-17, Muhammad Farooq in BS-16 and now as assistant registrar in BS-17, Farooq Ahmad as assistant registrar, Dr Muhammad Bashir as controller of examinations/director of academics in BS-20, Ijaz Asghar Bahtti as assistant professor of English, Tahir Umar as web developer, Javed Iqbal Jaidi as manager of FM Radio, Fazalur Rehman as director of the China Studies Centre in BS-21, Hamza Aftab security officer, Maryam Gul research officer, Faisal Siddique research officer, Fiaz Ahmad assistant director, Mehr Mohsin assistant director and Hassan Nasir Khan director of media.

VC Dr Ahmed told Dawn that he could not comment over the report as the case was in the court.

He said he had not appointed anyone of them and these appointments were made by his predecessors and it was duly approved by the university Syndicate.

He said he also had come to know that these appointments were made without advertisements in the media.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2019