ISLAMABAD, July 14: As an ordinance promulgated by President Asif Ali Zardari giving the National University of Modern Languages (Numl) under the military's control lapsed on Thursday, the government plans to introduce legislation to permanently allocate offices of rector and director general for serving or retired army officers.

Sources told Dawn that the draft bill prepared without taking any input from the university's board of governors and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was approved by the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Capital Administration and Development Division. The NA body overruled objections raised by Dr Sohail Naqvi, director general HEC.

Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani became the chairman of the university's board of governors after the promulgation of the lapsed ordinance. He appointed Major General (retd) Masood Ali Khan and Brigadier (retd) Azam Jamal as the university's rector and director general respectively.

Sources said vacancies of rector and director general for all the public sector universities are advertised and the appointments are made in line with the criteria set by the HEC. But under the proposed Numl legislation, rank, and not the qualification and experience, forms the basis for eligibility.

Established as the National Institute of Modern Languages (NIML) and functioning as a subsidiary of the Ministry of Education, through a resolution it was given under the control of General Headquarters (GHQ) during the days of late President General Ziaul Haq in 1979. However on papers it continued to remain under the education ministry.

It became a public sector university in 2000 with the President as its chancellor and the education minister as pro-chancellor. The chairmanship of the board of governors also remained with the chancellor.

With the promulgation of the ordinance in March this year, the university went under complete control of the army. Some 100 army officers learn different languages in the university while the number of civilian students is around 9,000.

After the devolution of the education ministry, the number of Numl Board of Governors has come to 12, with seven of them army officers.

Sources pointed out that the university has never received a single penny out of the defence budget. It gets budgetary grants out of the allocations made for the public sector universities. Dawn

A legal expert told that under the 18th amendment, an ordinance cannot be re-promulgated. He, however, said the arrangements made under the lapsed National University of Modern Languages Ordinance would remain intact as the process for legislation had already commenced.

Dr Kamran Jehangir, who was director general Numl before being replaced by Brigadier Jamal, had challenged his removal in the Islamabad High Court, pleading that he had been illegally removed without even serving a show cause notice on him. IHC's Justice Anwar Kazi has sought comments from the university.