LAHORE: The syndicate of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, has approved dismissal of its registrar while implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in the private law colleges scam.

Since the apex court has also dismissed the vice chancellor, the syndicate has referred the case to the Punjab governor for a final decision. In February, a three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan ordered the dismissal of the BZU vice chancellor and registrar in the light of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report on the private law colleges scam worth Rs459 million.

The FIA report has named a number of officials of the university management for their alleged involvement in the illegal affiliation of law colleges, students enrolment beyond the allocated seats, embezzlement of amount pertaining to forged fee vouchers, double registration of students and fake attendance certificates etc.

The syndicate meeting was held in the committee room of the campus on Saturday. The meeting was presided over by acting VC Prof Dr Muhammad Ali Shah while other members including retired Justice Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi, Prof Dr Zialul Qayyum, Khawja Jalaluddin Rumi, Dr Shumaila Khaliq, Dr Farhat Zafar, Registrar Zubair Ahmad Khan, Director (finance) Shahsawar, Prof Dr Muhammad Aziz, Controller Dr Ammanullah, Dr Asia Zulfiqar, Dr Usman Saleem and Sajid Tufail were also present.

Case of VC’s removal referred to governor

The SC decision of dismissal of BZU registrar Sohaib Rashid was presented before the syndicate and all the members unanimously approved the implementation of the court order and removed the registrar from the post.

The syndicate unanimously approved the last selection board minutes about promotion and appointments of teachers, appointment of additional deputy registrar, controller and treasurer.

The meeting also constituted a committee to investigate and audit the distance learning programme corruption cases.

The syndicate approved the statutes of the employees and constituted a committee to further probe the matter. The meeting also approved the upgrade of Prof Dr Muhammad Ali Shah’s grade to BPS-22.

The syndicate approved cancellation of affiliation of 50 private law colleges running three- and five-year programmes. The syndicate constituted a three-member committee to further investigate the law colleges matter and also established three centres - one each in Vehari, DG Khan and Multan - to conduct the examination of the enrolled 2,000 students of these 50 colleges for three- and five-year programmes.

The syndicate discussed the matter of the teachers studying on scholarships in foreign universities and directed them to report to the campus and served final notice on them. In case they did not respond, the syndicate approved running of advertisements against such teachers before their dismissal.

The syndicate approved action taken against the teachers and other employees under the PEEDA Act and all the decisions would be presented before it in the next meeting.

The syndicate accorded approval to the MoUs the university had inked with two commercial banks and okayed the leaves of faculty members on medical grounds.

The meeting also sanctioned release of salaries of the faculty and staff of its Layyah sub-campus.

The meeting okayed the admission of the students of session 2021-24 and 2022-26 of affiliated colleges of Sahiwal and Pakpattan and appealed to the government to extend the working of the university in the entire province.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023