Islamabad-The Quaid-i-Azam University Vice Chancellor and its Academic Staff Association on Tuesday started a war of words accusing one another of being ‘incompetent’ and working for ‘vested interests’, said an official on Tuesday.

ASA had issued a whitepaper against VC Prof. Dr. Javed Ashraf and declared the top head as primarily responsible for the alleged administrative and financial failures of the university and demanded immediate resignation of the VC.

Meanwhile VC Prof. Dr. Javed Ashraf held a media talk alleging that a group of teaching faculty at the campus was threatening to disrupt academic activities until the demand of VC’s resignation is accepted.

VC denying the claim of ASA regarding university’s performance said that the university’s performance over three-year tenure had been ranked number one in the country by the Higher Education Commission.

He said recently that the university also secured its place among the top 100 universities of Asia, after becoming the only Pakistani university included in the list of top 500 universities of the world in the Times Higher Education Index last year.  

VC said that QAU administration has offered the protesting faculty members to discuss all the unresolved issues but to no avail. The faculty has refused to engage in negotiations with the Vice Chancellor, the Registrar and even the Dean’s Committee.

They have also refused to submit their grievances in writing to the Joint Educational Advisor, Mr Rafiq Tahir, who was tasked to mediate on the matter by the Minister for Education

VC said that the administration believes the faculty protest is being fuelled by the vested interests of some professors, whose appointed cases have either been rejected in Selection Board or the HEC has not endorsed their promotion under Tenure Track System.

He said QAU administration insists that it will adhere to the rules and regulations of the University, and their lawful implementation through the Selection Board and the Syndicate, without caving into the unjustified demands of the faculty.

Meanwhile ASA in a statement issued said that a high level inquiry was ordered by the President of Pakistan last year which had members from planning commission, presidency and HEC. The inquiry said that the VC was held responsible for the academic degradation of QAU.

ASA statement said that VC is misrepresenting the current resentment of the faculty as a trade off by the senior faculty members who are eyeing their own promotions whereas the reality is otherwise.

President ASA Aqeel Bukhari said that hundreds of faculty members gather every day and demand the VC’s ouster. None of them is taking classes. In the last meeting of Deans and Chairpersons with the QAU faculty, none of the faculty member spoke in favor of the VC.

ASA also accused the VC for tempering the minutes of the statuary bodies, cheating the presidency and trying to play chicanery at times. They also blamed the VC for holding personal vendettas and grudges. The Registrar, Controller Examinations and all statuary heads are sent on forced leaves while the other offices are doomed to work on his personal whims bypassing the rules of business.

The statement said that Dr. Javed Ashraf resorts to blackmailing and intimidating the faculty adding that he is approaching the faculty members individually and threatening them of dire consequences.

 The entire faculty of QAU is on strike since past four weeks leading to a complete halt in the academic activities. Not a single teacher is taking class but the Vice Chancellor is misreporting to media that only 25 faculty members are creating hindrances.

The VC has created some buzzwords and he is recurrently repeating them.