ISLAMABAD: The education ministry is expected to complete the process of interviews to shortlist candidates for the appointment of two vice chancellors and one rector for the three main universities in the capital by next week.

The vice chancellors are being appointed for Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) and Allama Iqbal University (AIOU) while International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) will get the rector.

A search committee headed by Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain conducted interviews of 43 candidates on Wednesday and Thursday from a list of 108 education experts. Now other candidates are likely to be interviewed on Tuesday before calling the last batch for the interview.

The committee is supposed to recommend a panel of three top candidates against each post to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for final appointment.

Two former VCs, rector also among over 100 candidates vying for slots

Sources said the former heads of the three universities, who completed their tenures recently, were also in the race.

Meanwhile, the government has so far failed to give acting charge of the QAU vice chancellor to anyone and the university is being run without any head since Nov 21 when VC Dr Mohammad Ali Shah completed his four-year term.

Ideally, the senior dean of the university should have been given the acting charge, but he was not given the acting charge nor was any other faculty member considered for running the affairs on a temporary basis.

On the other hand, last month, the Ministry of Education gave the acting charge of VC to a senior faculty member of the AIOU. However, the IIUI is also without any acting rector.

An officer of the education ministry said a summary had been sent to the federal government for giving the acting charge of Quaid-i-Azam University to the executive director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) till the appointment of a regular VC. About the IIUI, he said the university’s president was there to run the affairs of the institution.

“We are hopeful that soon these universities will get regular heads as after completion of the interview process we will send names to the Prime Minister Office for final selection,” the officer said.

IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai completed his tenure in September this year followed by QAU Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali and AIOU’s Dr Ziaul Qayyum.

The sources said former QAU and AIOU vice chancellors wanted to serve the universities again while after serving for two tenures at the IIUI the ex-rector was interested in his posting as the head of AIOU or the QAU.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2022