The Secretary Higher Education Department (HED) stayed the scheduled syndicate meeting of the Lahore College for Women University for today (Friday).

The secretary issued the stay order on the representation of some faculty members of the varsity, said the official sources.

Despite court orders not to take policy decisions in syndicate meetings, the LCWU was going to convene the meeting, it was learnt.

However, the agenda of the syndicate meeting was not shared despite requests by this paper.

The Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) is one of the four prestigious Public sector universities i-e., Punjab University, LCWU, Sargodha University and Nawaz Sharif Technology University Multan that for the last one year are without permanent V.Cs.

However, the LHC had stopped the PU VC on look after charge Dr Mujahid Kamran to take policy decisions. Moreover, the LHC CJ in his short order has written “Let the matter be placed before the Chancellor, who will review the agenda in the light of above submissions and identify items out of the said agenda, which can be placed before the Syndicate so that day-to-day business of the University is not affected”. On this, the scheduled syndicate meeting at the PU was postponed.

On the same grounds the LCWU VC called syndicate meeting and took policy decisions to the surprise of many people. The court orders for one university are the same for the other university, say the official sources.

The HED Secretary, the LCWU VC and the varsity registrar and even the PRO of the university didn’t like to comment on the questions forwarded to them for comments. They neither confessed that the syndicate meeting was being convened after the approval of the competent authority nor they shared the agenda of the meeting.

However, a faculty member of the university requesting anonymity told that the Punjab government was not serious on appointment of the VCs in top public sector universities. The VCs on look after charge are being honored while the deserving persons are denied access to right positions, he blamed.

The honorable Chief Justice has directed the Chancellor to ascertain domain of the V.C on look after charge and what are the matters essentially beyond the jurisdiction of such VCs, he held.

Official sources further say that the LCWU VC on look after charge Dr. Uzma Qurashi has also scheduled LWCU syndicate meeting for 28.10.2016. The LCWU syndicate meetings in which policy decisions were taken are a glaring example of mockery of law. Some faculty members were hired on permanent basis while some were dismissed from service in the syndicate meeting despite the fact that some syndicate members had written dissenting notes.

Punjab Higher Education Department is still giving an impression that it was ignoring the top educational institutions, the professor said.

It is also learnt that some petitions of the professors of the LCWU are also lying for consideration of the Secretary HED, the controlling authority. They have challenged the acts of the VC on look-after charge to convene syndicate meetings and take policy decisions, told the sources in the HED. Some have also challenged seniority of the VC in the court of law and the competent authority.

Neither the VC Dr Uzma Quraishi nor the PRO of the varsity were available for comments.