Islamabad - The International Islamic University (IIU) administration, without any inquiry, served show cause notices to two of its faculty members leading to their dismissal from the services on demanding merit based appointment of the institution’s head, said an official on Wednesday.
The official informed The Nation that Dr. Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhry and Dr. Hasnain Naqvi of the Computer Science and Software Engineering department have been served with the show cause notices, leading to their dismissal from the services.
Official said that both faculty members have been primarily accused for demanding the merit-based appointment of university’s president and participating in demonstration for fair appointments in all higher education institutions of the federal city.
IIU’s Board of Trustees (BOT) in previous month appointed the Saudi Arabian national Prof Dr. Ahmed Yousif Ahmed Al Draiweesh as president of the university for the 3rd term, while the position of the university’s rector has been also advertised.
However, the extension led to resentment among faculty members and students who complained that the administrative set-up had failed to address the problems in a decade-long tenure.
The Saudi Arabian national president of IIU was also accused of unfairly awarding a degree of BS in International Relations to his own son in violation of the university rules.
“Soon after the extension of the president, the administration began victimizing the teachers and faculty members who had raised their voice for fair appointments,” said the official.
The official said that six students were earlier issued notices for participating in the demonstration in off timings while two faculty members have been also given the notices without any inquiry.
The notice issued by Vice President (VP) of the university, Prof Dr. Aqdas Naveed Malik stated “Being the authorized officer in this case, I am convinced that you are guilty of misconduct under the IIUI Employees Efficiency & Disciplinary (E&D) statutes 1987”.
He further stated that it is not necessary to have an inquiry conducted though an officer. The official said that more than ten charges have been levelled against the two faculty members, none of which have gone through a proper inquiry.
The faculty members served the show cause notice have been accused of circulating a letter dated 14th September 2017 through email which ‘questioned the personal integrity of the President IIU’. The notice alleged that both faculty members, before the renewal appointment of the president IIU, approached the BOT members and provided them a dossier containing more than 200 pages. The dossier, they claimed, damaged the reputation of the university and it’s President.
“You have not only disgraced the image of the university before the BOT members but also intended to create an ugly situation for the university,” said the notification.
Dr. Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhry, talking to The Nation said that he and Dr. Hasnain Naqvi were being victimized by the university administration and VP for raising their concerns on misappropriations in the department and the university administration.
He said that he had requested the administration to initiate inquiry on payment of above Rs500000 to a foreign visiting scholar who didn’t visit the campus.
Further issues of financial embezzlements, appointments and unfair awarding of degree to the son of university’s president were also protested and condemned on different forums.
He added that instead of releasing the inquiries of the issues mentioned the administration is determined to dismiss the officials from the services.
Replying to the query regarding dismissal without initiating inquiry, the official said that reservations of the officials will be addressed in the proceedings when they appear before the committee. President of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA), Prof. Dr. Kaleemullah Bareach condemned President IIUI for victimization of Dr. Shehzad Ashraf and Dr Husnain Naqvi.
He said the show cause notice served in response to their demands to appoint Heads of universities and Higher Education Commission on merit and an end to irregularities and corruption is the stance of whole FAPUASA. Furthermore, he urged Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto action against all such elements.