KARACHI, April 11: The appointment of a regular vice-chancellor at the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Sciences and Technology is likely to be finalized within a months time, a source in Higher Education Commission said.

It was learnt that the first meeting of the "Search Committee" for appointment of second vice-chancellor of the varsity was held the other day, with a lady nominated by the chancellor of the varsity as its convener.

The post of vice-chancellor has been lying vacant for last three months after appointment of the then VC of the varsity, Dr Pirzada Qasim, as vice-chancellor of the University of Karachi.

Initially, the Dean of Arts faculty was appointed as an acting VC, but the university senate, in its meeting at Islamabad, later resorted to appoint a former bureaucrat, Aftab Ahmad Khan, as "administrator," disallowing the dean to continue as acting VC.

The source said that the search committee felt that a VC should be appointed in line with the provisions of the Urdu University Ordinance-2002 on priority basis. The committee decided to request to about six scholars and senior academicians to recommend names of persons they deemed suitable for the VC's post at the earliest.

The names to be received from the scholars would again be placed in the meeting of the search committee, which would finalize a panel of persons, which would finally be presented to President Pervez Musharraf, who is also the chancellor of the federal university.

The letters have been sent to selective scholars and academicians, who in return would be furnishing the suitable names for the vacant post of VC within the stipulated period of ten day, added the source, anticipating that the university would get a new VC in the first week of May.