MULTAN, June 30: A committee of the Bahauddin Zakariya University has suspended from service three top officials of its construction section for alleged irregularities in the under-construction convocation hall.

The suspended officials are project director Mian Aziz Ahmad, university engineer Aftab Ahmad Sahu and assistant engineer Mian Allah Bakhsh. The committee has directed them not to come to their offices till the final findings of the inquiry committee.

Dawn learnt on Sunday the construction of the hall started during the current fiscal with an estimated cost of Rs40 million. It was learnt by the time the inquiry committee submitted its preliminary findings to the syndicate, one-fourth of the construction had been completed.

On the complaints of sub-standard use of material, BZU Vice Chancellor Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry ordered to stop the construction and referred the case to the deans’ committee. The committee recommended the matter should be probed by a committee of experts.

The VC constituted a three-member committee comprising Chief Engineer (highways) Altaf Husain Shaheedi, architect Anwar Ali and University Engineering College Principal Dr Akhtar Ali Malik.

The committee, after consultation with some senior faculty members of the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, reported there were irregularities in the construction of the convocation hall.

The syndicate, at its meeting on Sunday, constituted a committee, comprising BZU Physics department Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Mathematics Director Dr Nazeer Ahmad Mir, chemistry Prof Hafiz Saeed Iqbal to start proceedings against the suspended officials under the removal from services ordinance, 2002.

The university registrar had been directed to take possession of the construction case and present it to the disciplinary committee whenever it wanted to examine it.

Meanwhile, the syndicate has directed Dr Akhtar Malik, Dr Muhammad Zafarullah and Dr Saeed Ahmad Shaikh to look after the university’s current development projects.