ISLAMABAD: Committees formed to stem Urdu varsity’s rot
By Khawar Ghumman
ISLAMABAD, April 25: On the request of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the Auditor General has constituted two separate committees to conduct a financial as well as a performance-based audit of the Federal Urdu University, which, over the last couple of years, has witnessed great mismanagement, Dawn has learnt through reliable sources.
The Karachi-based Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology (FUUAST), the only varsity set up under the controversial Model University Ordinance, 2002, has been plagued by financial as well as administrative problems soon after its establishment in 2003.
There were all kinds of problems, from leg-pulling among top university officials, which created administrative problems, to selecting companies for certain tenders, to recruitment on the basis of personal likings, an official at the HEC told Dawn.
The university is being run without a vice-chancellor since May 2006. However, an advertisement has been placed in the press for the selection of its new VC, and April 30 is the last date for the submission of applications.
The HEC has been given a free hand by its chancellor — the president of Pakistan -- to clear the varsity from all kinds of mess, by the time its new VC was selected, the official said.
To make the audit free of any influence, the university registrar has already been sent on forced leave, while there is a strong recommendation that officials found involved in financial corruption or mismanagement would be dealt with under the Removal from Service Ordinance, 2000, the official said.
“We have to take tough decisions to bring this varsity on a par with the rest of the public sector universities of the country,” he added.
In response to a question, the official said that the audit teams would cover a time period of four years, from November 1, 2003 when the varsity formally opened.
In the first week of this month, the varsity reportedly had to demote almost 150 teachers, earlier granted promotion in violation of HEC guidelines. Over 300 teachers were promoted to their next grades and, interestingly, the promotion was approved by the university’s syndicate.
Similarly, on April 3, police resorted to firing into the air and baton-charged protesting students of the university, who had lit bonfires suspending traffic on University Road.
They were protesting against the suspension of academic activities in the campus for over a week.
It was such a bad state of affairs at the varsity that despite repeated requests by the HEC, the administration was not willing to convene a meeting of its Senate to take stock of the situation.
However, after direct intervention by the presidency, the Senate met during the second week of April, and its next meeting has been scheduled for May 5 or 6.
Under its charter, the university was to make efforts to get books of modern subjects like computer sciences, management sciences and economics translated into Urdu. However, so far nothing has been done in this regard, the official said.
