RAHIM YAR KHAN: Accusing the acting registrar of Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology of misleading the selection board during the process for hiring a teacher, three external board members have withdrawn their approval.

The three members objected to the proceedings on the agenda item for hiring of professor of mechanical engineering in the 22nd meeting of the board last month.

Sources said that a working paper regarding the hiring was placed before the board in which retired Prof Dr Muhammad Munir Ahmed was declared eligible by the registrar office. The board members deemed him suitable for the post with the usual salary of a professor, but during the meeting nothing was discussed regarding a specific amount.

Three board members claim were kept in the dark about facts, withdraw approval

Later, three external members on the board, including Khawaja Fareed Government Postgraduate College Principal Prof Dr Ajmal Bhatti engaged by the varsity, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan School of Economics Director Prof Dr Imran Sharif Chaudhry and retired Prof Dr Azra Asghar Ali – both appointed by the Punjab government found out that Acting Registrar Bilal Irshad had unlawfully and by concealing facts got their signatures on the consolidated sheet.

They claimed that Mr Irshad did not disclose the salary package of Rs600,000 promised to the professor, which could not be paid keeping in view the financial constraints the varsity was faced with and was also against the law and financial rules. Instead of a retired professor, a regular professor could be easily afforded within the same amount, they added.

The members wrote a letter to the varsity vice chancellor expressing concern over the “deception by the administration”. They also withdrew and cancelled their recommendation of the professor based on a few reasons, including retired faculty statutes of the university. They said the salary package had not been approved by the Syndicate and the acting registrar also did not bother to produce any information regarding this issue.

Secondly, the salary package was not discussed and disclosed, and the members were kept in the dark about it, which was against the rules of business of the selection board and such concealment of financial matters comes under deception, financial indiscipline and moral turpitude.

The third reason was that age of the candidate was over 60 years on the closing date for the application. Fourth, the candidate did not present equivalence certificates from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of his MSc and PhD degrees achieved from foreign universities.

The fifth objection they raised was that the candidate did not present the evidence of Pakistan Engineering Council registration number. Lastly, and most importantly, the candidate was illegally allowed by the chair to sit during the selection board proceedings on his own appointment without taking the board members into confidence.

The members said that the case could be presented afresh before the board in its forthcoming meeting after removing all legitimate facts. They also sent the copies of their letter to the chancellor (also the provincial governor), chief minister, pro-chancellor, the HEC secretary and all members of syndicate.

According to some university insiders, there were allegations regarding the administration violating merit in the selection of some officers in the registrar, admin and finance departments.

These officers were initially appointed on junior posts and within two to three years promoted without following the university standard operating procedures. One of them is also a close relative of the vice chancellor.

When contacted, the university’s Assistant Public Relations Officer (PRO) Ali Raza Gopang said that he will respond to the queries after discussing the issue with PRO. However, PRO Shahid Durrani did not respond to repeated requests for information for a week and sent a text message, saying he will get back soon, but did not till the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2019