MULTAN: After the syndicate of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) on Dec 21 empowered the departments of engineering and technology to abolish the status of the college, the appointment of the dean faculty of engineering is becoming a complicated matter, Dawn has learnt.

The BZU registrar forwarded the case of the appointment of the dean to the Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) to grant autonomy to the departments of engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering and building and architectural engineering by abolishing the position of the university college of engineering and technology principal. The notification was issued on Jan 7.

Dr Abid Latif and Dr Tahir Sultan, both from the Department of Civil Engineering, were recommended for the dean post but the HED returned the case seeking if any inquiry was pending against them. The registrar office replied in the negative and forwarded again their names to the HED. Meanwhile, a complaint was forwarded to the HED by Muhammad Bilal alleging academic dishonesty and administrative and financial misconduct about the nominees.

He mentioned a plea by International Relations Department chairman Dr Omer Farooq Zain in the the Lahore High Court that states both professors were issued letters on August 7, 2018 to refund Rs1.494 million and 1.045 million and on the directions of the vice-chancellor and that the first installment had been collected from them. Later, the recovery was stopped.

He requested that the proceeding regarding the appointment of the dean be stopped till the finalization of a high level Inquiry (to be carried out on the recommendations of the syndicate in accordance with the direction of the LHC in the Dr Zain case).

Dr Zain in his petition stated that the university calendar did not allow any teacher to teach more than three courses in a running semester as a part-time teacher during the spring semester 2016-17 but Dr Latif taught 16 courses with 144 contact hours per week having an average of 20.6 hours per day and taught only one course as regular duty load while he was paid for remaining 15 courses by two different institutions - the BZU and the National Fertilizer Corporation Institute of Engineering and Technology (NFC-IET), despite most of the courses overlapped.

Dr Latif earned Rs2.115 million in a semester of 4.5 months which was more than his monthly salary. During the fall semester 2016-17, Dr Latif taught seven courses with 43 contact hours per week out of which only one course he taught under his regular duty load while four courses were taught at the NFC-IET during working hours of the BZU and the timetables of both institutes overlapped. He said during the spring semester 2016-17, Dr Sultan taught 14 courses with 114 contact hours per week having an average of 16.6 hours per day and taught only two courses under regular duty while most of the courses overlapped. Surprisingly, he also was present at the same time at two places.

Dr Sultan earned Rs1.384 million during a semester which was also more than his monthly salary.

Dr Zain’s petition states that during the fall semester 2016-17, Dr Sultan taught three courses at NFC-IET during BZU working hours. The timetable of the both the institutes overlapped.

VC Dr Mansoor Akbar Kundi confirmed that the inquiry was underway against both professors, saying as the HED was seeking names for dean which the university administration provided.

“We have no other candidate to recommend apart from these two candidates, though we are to sent three nominees. We sent two nominees as we don’t have any other candidate,” he said.

He said that he was against abolishing the status of the college but it was syndicate’s decision which has to be implemented.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2020