ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has appointed Prof Dr Mohammad Tabassum Afzal as the rector of Comsats University.

The appointment was made on the basis of a summary submitted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, said a statement issued by the Presidency on Friday.

The ministry had notified the appointment of the professor on April 30 but terms and conditions of the appointment were not approved by the president.

“President Alvi, who is also the chancellor of Comsats University, approved the terms and conditions of the rector’s appointment. Prof Afzal’s appointment was made out of a panel of three persons recommended by Search Committee and Senate of Comsats University,” added the statement.

Prof Afzal is settled in Canada, and sources said he had requested the government to first approve the terms and conditions of his appointment so that he could join the university.

The sources said now he could join the institute any time.

The position remained vacant for the last three years and was being run by an interim rector since March 2017.

Earlier, the Senate of CUI, under the chairmanship of the president of Pakistan, shortlisted three names as per guidelines of the Comsats University Act 2018.

The Senate constituted a Search Committee under the chairmanship of Zohair Ashir and mandated it with full powers to propose five names for the position.

The Senate while considering the names presented by the Search Committee further shortlisted a penal of three names to be placed before the president.

The other two candidates were Dr Zabita Khan Shinwari and Dr Mohammad Bilal Khan.

The president during the CUI Senate meeting had desired to seek detailed opinion from Higher Education Commission about each candidate before appointing the rector.

The CUI was established by an act of parliament in 1999 as Comsats Institute of Information Technology and was given the status of university in April 2018.

The new rector has a big challenge ahead. The completion of statutory bodies, after passing of CUI Act 2018, is depending on the appointment of the permanent rector who has been empowered by statutes to appoint candidates against vacant positions of registrar, directors of six campuses, all deans of faculties and chairpersons of departments, which are vacant for the last three years.

The Academic Staff Association (ASA) also remained in a tussle with the interim setup during the last three years.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020