PESHAWAR, Dec 23: NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman has set up a committee to look for and recommend candidates for the post of vice-chancellor (VC) of Peshawar University. The committee has become active as the two-year tenure of the present vice-chancellor is ending later this month, official sources said.

In January 2004, Lt-Gen (Rtd) Mumtaz Gul, a one-time chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission, was appointed vice-chancellor for a two-year term by former NWFP governor Lt-Gen (Rtd) Iftikhar Hussain Shah in his capacity as chancellor of the university.

Instead of random or direct appointment of a vice-chancellor, from this year, a competent authority assigned the committee the task of recommending names to the NWFP governor, who is also the chancellor, from which he could select any one, the sources said.

The candidate should preferably have a doctorate degree and have managerial experience also, an official said.

The five-member body, which includes prominent academics and former government officials, was scheduled to hold its first meeting on Dec 16 but the meeting could not be held due to the absence of two of its members,. Another meeting to be held on Dec 22nd also could not be held as the NWFP chief secretary, who is the convener of the committee, was busy.

A search committee member said that the process of searching for a suitable vice-chancellor would continue.

“The search is on and the committee is continuously working in a ‘realm of unknown’,” the member said. The committee will see to it that the persons nominated have “credentials, background experience for running an academic institution”. He should be highly motivated and have the ability to raise the standard of education,” he said.

“The committee is keen to introduce ‘dynamism’,” a member of the committee said.

“We are open-minded and our supreme interest is education so a person who has the abilities and repute to raise the standard of education will be nominated,” the committee member said.

The nominations will be sent to the NWFP governor for final.

The search committee will keep on sending nominations to the chancellor till he appoints one as vice-chancellor of the university, the member said.