LAHORE, Oct 8: In a major development, the Punjab government has constituted a five-member search committee for the appointment of regular vice chancellors of two major medical universities creating a ‘visible space’ for dozens of retired senior medics also to apply for the prized posts, Dawn has learnt.

The government has issued two separate notifications -- one about setting up a committee and the other about the criteria -- for the appointment of vice chancellors of King Edward Medical University and the University of Health Sciences, Lahore.

Although both notifications came too late, they were carrying some flaws, a senior official closed to the development told Dawn requesting anonymity.

He said one notification was relating to the search committee with a mandate to recommend a penal of three suitable candidates to fill top slots and the other was about the laid down selection criteria for candidates.

He said the second notification brought a ‘good news’ for dozens of senior doctors who had retired from public sector medical institutions over last five years as the government had fixed 65 as maximum age limit for the appointment of vice-chancellors at the two target medical universities. The appointment would be made for a four-year term for each post.

The notification also has significant charm for those several senior medical teachers who are below 61 years of age as they can enjoy chances of two terms on the above-mentioned posts under the given-criteria.

An official said that in the eligibility criteria the government had dropped senior doctors with a background of ‘dental qualification’ as applications were sought from senior doctors belonging to medical sciences showing discrimination towards dozens of those who opted for the dentistry field.He said the health secretary was not made part of the five-member committee which created doubts on the credibility of the selection criteria.

The Supreme Court had in March 2012 issued directions to the government to bring amendments in laid down rules and regulations and appoint regular VCs of the said medical universities.

The age limit was fixed in accordance with the KEMU-UHS-amendment Act 2012 which had been accordingly passed by the Punjab Assembly.

The committee was comprised former foreign minister Sartaj Aziz, a senior industrialist and Pro-Chancellor of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Syed Babar Ali, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, former principal of Allama Iqbal Medical College Prof Dr S.A.R Gardezi and former senior bureaucrat Pervez Masood.

The committee has been first entrusted with a task to appoint a convener in its first meeting from within the designated members.

It is then mandated to seek applications from willing candidates for posts of vice-chancellors of the KEMU and the UHS and after short-listing suitable candidates in accordance with the laid down criteria mentioned in the second notification recommend a penal of three senior medics to the Punjab chief minister for final approval.

According to the criteria, the candidate should have PMDC-recognized level-III qualifications -- MD, MS and FCPS --- with a minimum 10 years of teaching experience and for basic sciences the qualification will be FCPS/PhD.

A total of 100 marks were formulated in the laid down criteria for the VC of the two medical varsities which primarily included 50 marks to be awarded by the search committee for interview, 10 marks for additional qualification, 20 marks for additional professorship/teaching experience, 10 each marks for administrative experience and research publication, respectively.

The criteria for qualification and experience has been further categorized in the notification -- one mark will be awarded for each recognized qualification required after level-III qualification, two marks for each year service as professor, one mark for each year as vice-chancellor of any state-run medical university, 0.7 mark for each year as pro-VC, 0.5 mark for each year as principal or dean, 0.25 mark for each year as head of department, one mark for each international research publication, 0.75 mark for each national research publication, 0.5 mark for each international/national research publication other than those specified above.

A minimum of eight research publications in local and foreign indexed journals are required.

The draft of eligibility criteria for the appointment of vice-chancellor of both medical universities was recommended in March 2012 by the inter-department committee headed by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department Secretary Dr Syed Abul Hasan Najmi.

The committee was constituted in the wake of a Lahore High Court verdict declaring the appointment of Dr Malik as UHS VC illegal on Feb 27 for crossing the age-limit for the post.

The Punjab government then went into an appeal with the Supreme Court. During hearing, the Supreme Court was informed that 34 VCs were serving after their retirement and 19 VCs had been appointed more than once.

Later, a four-member larger bench of the Supreme Court had on March 14 appointed Prof Dr Irshad Ahmad Naveed VC and the chief executive of UHS on an interim basis and directed the Punjab government to appoint the VC, pro-VC and the chief executive on a permanent basis.