PESHAWAR, Feb 25: Favouritism and nepotism dashed to the ground the hopes of another PhD student, a candidate for lectureship when chairman, department of International Relations, favoured a third rank candidate over the topper and forward his appointment to Syndicate University of Peshawar for approval.

A well-placed source said that a screening test was held some time back for lectureship in the department of IR and was topped by Khalil-ur-Rehman out of the 28 candidates by scoring 13.5 marks out of 20, Muhammad Zubair stood second by scoring 13 marks and the favoured candidate Shahid Ali Khan Khattak stood third by scoring 12.5 marks.

Academically Khalil-ur-Rehman was the only candidate with an M.Phil degree and is at present studying his for his PhD at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, due to which he got maximum marks in academics, 28 out of 40.

The source further disclosed that at the time of selection chairman, department of IR University of Peshawar awarded 5 marks out of 20 to Khalil-ur-Rehman, 8 marks to Muhammad Zubair while 19 out of 20 was awarded to Shahid Ali Khan Khattak which radically altered the result based on the screening test and academic record.

This act of Adnan Sarwar Khan Khattak, the chairman of the department changed the result and paved way for the appointment of Shahid Ali Khatttak. In this way, his name was sent to Syndicate for approval.

The selection process comprises 100 marks - 40 marks for academic record, 20 for screening test, 20 for M.Phil, PhD and academic distinction, and 20 marks are at the disposal of the selection board.

The selection committee conducted the screening test where 28 candidates appeared out of which 8 qualified for the final selection.—PPI