KARACHI, Dec 15: Responding to recent news reports on large-scale illegal appointments at the institution, the Karachi University syndicate on Saturday tasked a four-member committee to look into the matter and recommend measures to implement the report findings.

The meeting of the university statutory body was presided over by Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Qaiser.

The committee tasked to work on illegal appointments comprised Sindh governor’s nominee Mumtaz-ur-Rehman, Prof Dr Majid Mumtaz, Dr Haris Shoaib and Prof Anees Zaidi.

The committee had earlier worked on cases of upgrade at the university and presented its report in the meeting on Saturday.

It needs to be recalled that a report prepared by a syndicate member has recently been printed in a section of the press, according to which at least 421 people have been appointed at the university since 2008 in violation of rules and regulations. Of them, 114 appointments alone have been costing more than Rs100 million to the KU annually.

Unofficial statements, according to the report, put the total number of illegal appointments at 500 over the five years. The appointments have been made on an ad-hoc or a contract or a daily-wage basis.

The report called for an urgent action to help save the reputation and precious resources of the KU, which is already facing serious financial problems.

The syndicate also discussed in detail the report on cases of upgrade of non-teaching officers according to which ‘a strange phenomenon’ had been adopted in giving pensionary benefits to retiring university employees who were awarded the next
higher scale of pay (grade) six months prior to the retirement date, without actually promoting the incumbent to the next grade/post.

The member of the committee, Mumtaz-ur-Rahman, who prepared the report, had regretted in the report that such practices continued in the university, though time and again the governor’s secretariat was issuing instructions /advice for maintaining financial discipline in the university.

The syndicate had to withdraw its resolution passed earlier that barred university employee approaching the court of law before exhausting possible remedies offered by different university forums in case of any grievance.

According to the legal advice put forth in the syndicate meeting, the resolution appeared to be not in consonance with the law and disciplinary action in terms of Efficiency and Discipline (E&D) rules could not be initiated on grounds that an employee had approached the court.

The resolution according to university legal adviser retired Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqi was against the fundamental rights provided under Article 4 of the Constitution.

It is noteworthy that the syndicate in its meeting held on September 15 passed two resolutions — one barred university employees approaching the court of law before exhausting possible remedies offered by different university forums while the other allowed them to approach the ombudsman for issues pertaining to their seniority.

The KU syndicate had to seek a legal opinion on both resolutions.

Contrary to the legal advice obtained by the KU registrar office on October 9, 2012, the registrar reissued a notification on November 29, 2012 in which employees were threatened with disciplinary action if they approached the court of law without exhausting the remedies possibly offered by the relevant forums of the university.

The syndicate also rejected the proposal of allowing the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) to secure mutation of the university land in favour of the institute.

The syndicate approved reports related to the departments of general history and Islamic history, including the appointment of fully-fledged chairpersons.