ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday singed a summary to appoint Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed Akhtar as the vice chancellor (VC) of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), but the appointments of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) heads are still in the doldrums.

According to a brief statement issued by the Presidency, President Alvi approved the appointment of Prof Akhtar as the vice chancellor of QAU. It said on the recommendations of the search committee the president conducted interviews of all the three shortlisted candidates and approved the name of Dr Akhtar for the key post at the QAU.

Sources in the education ministry told Dawn that after receiving back the summary carrying approval of the president, the ministry will notify the appointment of Dr Akhtar.

It may be noted here that the search committee headed by Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain after conducting interviews of 108 candidates had shortlisted nine names – three each against one post and sent them to Prime Minister Office in the first week of February for onward submission to the president, who is the chancellor of public sector universities, for final approval.

However, the sources said, the government wanted to appoint two candidates, who were not on the top of the lists, as the VC and rector of the AIOU and the IIUI, respectively.

The sources said there was also alleged pressure on the education ministry to change the order of the shortlisted candidates to pave the way for the appointment of the blue-eyed boys.

The sources said since the ministry could not change the order, the process faced a delay and instead of one go, the government sent only one summary to the president to fill the post at the QAU.

The remaining two summaries for the appointments at the AIOU and IIUI, citing different reasons, were returned to the ministry a few weeks ago for submitting them “afresh” separately.

The sources said there were also chances that the ministry will go for the fresh summaries for the appointment of the VC and the rector, however, a final decision was yet to be made.

When contacted, an officer of the education ministry after getting input from Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain told Dawn that the search committee headed by the minister had completed its process last month.

The minister denied any pressure from the government to change the order of the shortlisted candidates, claiming due to some “technical objections” the summaries of AIOU and IIUI were referred back to the education ministry by the PM Office and in the meanwhile the QAU summary was sent to the president for approval.

“The remaining two summaries are in the process. Referring back summaries to the ministry is a routine and official process,” he said.

The posts of the two vice chancellors and the rector fell vacant in October and November last year and after considerable delay, last month, three names against each post were sent to the government for appointment.

However, the sources said, the summary was returned by the Prime Minister (PM) Office with directions that instead of one three separate summaries should be sent. The education ministry then sent separate summaries and two of them were returned to remove “objections”.

For the post of QAU vice chancellor Dr Akhtar was on top followed by Dr Raheel Qamar and Dr Fazal Khaliq.

For the AIOU, former vice chancellor Dr Ziaul Qayyum, Dr Nasir Mehmood (acting VC) and Dr Mudassar were picked by the the panel. Similarly, for the post of the rector IIUI, Dr Ilyas, Dr Tahir Khalil and Dr Amina were selected.

Earlier, in order to find suitable candidates, the search committee headed by the education minister completed the interviews of candidates during the last week of December. The committee interviewed about 108 candidates from a list of over 500.

Meanwhile, in the absence of regular heads, QAU is being run by HEC Executive Director Dr Shaista Sohail while the AIOU is being run by Prof Dr Nasir Mehmood. However, no one has been given the additional charge of IIUI rector since the varsity has a president.

IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai completed his tenure in September last year followed by QAU Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali and AIOU Vice Chancellor Dr Ziaul Qayyum, who completed their tenures in November.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2023