LAHORE, March 22: The Punjab University vice-chancellor is alleged to be trying his best to keep the critics of his policies and decisions out of the university’s statutory bodies.

The latest example quoted in this regard is the Institute of Geology’s Dr Iftikhar Husain Baloch whom the VC is trying to remove from the Syndicate for having criticized him at a meeting on Jan 25.

Dr Baloch, sources told Dawn on Friday, had protested that the VC, Lt-Gen Arshad Mahmood (retired), was being “extravagant ever since his appointment as head of the university” in wielding his emergency powers under Section 15(3) of the University Act while dealing even the “trivial matters.”

The teacher under fire has been elected to the Syndicate on an assistant professor’s seat. The sources say the university is using “the prescribed methods for removing him from the body.”

“It is only the haste being shown by the university in getting Dr Baloch ousted from the body that has made the affair suspect in the eyes of the faculty,” they say.

Dr Baloch was recommended by the selection board for promotion as an associate professor. The VC did not waste time to issue the notification implementing the board’s recommendation using his special emergency powers to notify Dr Baloch’s appointment in the senior post on Feb 20. The next day he wrote to the governor, who is chancellor of the university, to notify his removal from the Syndicate “since he is no longer eligible.”

However, the effort has not borne fruit so far. The chancellor has returned the request with the query whether Dr Baloch has joined as associate professor.

Baffled by the inquiry, the PU registrar wrote to Dr Baloch on March 9, directing him to take up his new assignment by March 11. Otherwise, he was warned, the vacancy “would be re-advertised.”

In reply, Dr Baloch congratulated him for the promptness and urged him to “practise the same efficiency in other university affairs involving the teachers.”

“As far as my joining as associate professor is concerned, there is no provision in the university calendar requiring the joining within a specific period. Even the newcomers are given a month time to join the university service. I would be obliged if you can quote the relevant clause from the calendar under which the registrar is authorized to persuade an in-service teacher to join (his new assignment) in a given time period,” he wrote.

Dr Baloch has also requested the VC to “let his case be processed in the normal course instead of using his special emergency powers.”

It may be mentioned here that he had pointed out at a recent Syndicate meeting that the three-year term of Senate members — Dr Haris Rasheed, Umar Farooq and Syed Muhammad Naeem — who represent the Senate on the Syndicate had expired in Nov 2001. “I had urged the VC to write to the governor/ chancellor to notify their removal,” he said. But the VC did not oblige, saying “they were working satisfactorily.”

PU registrar Masudul Haq said “in-service teachers, who get promotions, are required to join the new posts straight away.” Only the newcomers/outsiders, he said, were entitled to a one-month joining period. “The in-service teachers must join the senior post or refuse to do so to enable the university to offer the job to the next candidate,” he said.

Responding to a query, the registrar said the university rules were silent on the time period allowed to the in-service teachers to join senior posts after their promotion. “Usually they join right away.”