LAHORE: With key positions still vacant, the University of Layyah is facing financial, academic and administrative problems since its inception.

The Punjab government had converted the Layyah sub-campus of the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, into University of Layyah on Dec 8, 2022 after legislation.

Additional charge of the VC post was given to BZU Institute of Banking and Finance Director Prof Dr Shaukat Malik for a period of three months or till the appointment of a regular incumbent.

Mr Malik told Dawn the university was working without syndicate, academic council, registrar, treasurer and controller examinations.

Fate of 1,700 students at stake: VC

He said he had approached the Higher Education Department (HED) to fill all the key posts but no action was taken.

He said they were facing difficulty in running daily routine matters and the future of 1,700 students was at stake.

Mr Malik said 90 employees, including faculty, had not received salaries for the last two months. He said though a sum of Rs 350 million was allocated for the university, only Rs 120 million were released. The recurring fund is being used to construct the VC house, hostel and a mosque. “I am living in a room meant for security guards and no penny is given for fuel, food and other daily-use items,” he said.

Mr Malik said faculty members were employees of the BZU, working on deputation and they might leave the university for not receiving their salaries.

He said he was not able to start new programmes because the decision-making bodies were not functional. He said he was using his own resources to travel and no one from the bureaucracy was listening to his issues.

HED secretary Javed Akhtar Mahmood told Dawn that the summaries for appointing additional registrar, additional treasure and additional controller had been sent to the Governor Secretariat for appointment and the posts would be filled soon.

Meanwhile, Punjab Finance Department Deputy secretary Elahi Bakhsh has been given additional charge of the post of resident auditor, University of Layyah, in addition to his own duties till further orders on administrative grounds.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2023