islamabad - The Federal Ministry for Education and Professional Training causing further delay in the selection of heads of three public sector universities of the city has formed a new six member search committee for completion of the process, The Nation learned on Friday.
Interestingly, the newly formed committee comprised mostly of bureaucrats instead of distinguished academicians. “Except chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr. Tariq Banuri no other member has an academic background,” said a senior official.
The newly formed six members search committee consists of secretary ministry of education Arshad Mirza, Chairman HEC Dr. Tariq Banuri, Dr. Sania Nishtar, Salman Ghani, Syed Javed Hasan and SPS to minister of federal education.
Official said that the committee will scrutinize the names and issue the letters to the candidates qualifying the criteria for the VC position.
VC Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Prof. Dr. Javed Ashraf, VC Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Dr. Shahid Siddique and rector International Islamic University (IIU) Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai are going to retire in next month.
The delay in appointment of new heads of these institutes will led to the ad-hoc situation for indefinite time, said the source.
Sources said that the ministry is still moving on the issue with snail pace, because till now it has held only two meetings, while the hundreds of applications had to be finalized and applicants will be called for interview later.
“Still the ministry has not done the short listing of the candidates,” sources said.
The previous search committee includes federal minister for education, Chairman HEC, Federal Secretary Education, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Dr. Junaid Zaidi and two other academicians from public and private education sector.
“There is a clear difference between composition of both committees as the new one includes more bureaucrats,” said the source.
A senior official informed The Nation that government is mulling to appoint the persons with more administrative experience than academic qualification as the head of these universities.
“The unpleasant experience in QAU has forced the government to consider this option,” said the source.
President Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) Dr. Mehboob Hussain said that government apparently has failed in timely appointment of VC in three public sector universities of the federal capital.
He said that FAPUASA has a principle stance that the search committees must include the academicians for better selection of the candidates.
“Universities do not need administrators, they require academic-administrator because one has to deal with academic problems of the institute,” he said.
Secretary Education Arshad Mirza talking to The Nation said that the committee held meeting today but the selection of the heads of the institutions is a lengthy process.
He said that the selection could not be made in a sudden move as there are multiple indicators which are set and followed in the process. He added that the committee prepares the proper criteria for the selection of the heads of these institutes.
Federal Ministry for Education and Professional Training had advertised the top posts of QAU, AIOU and IIU in the month of March and the process should have been finalized in August this year.
The previous government despite having required time during its tenure, failed in taking the VCs selection procedure to an end.
Education ministry in its advertisement also didn’t mention the teaching experience and academic scale of the candidate which was a legal flaw, while number of applicants who have applied for the position of VC holds average academic background, said the source.
Meanwhile COMSATS University is also being run on ad-hoc basis by interim rector while the Ministry of Information and Technology has also not appointed the permanent rector of the university.
