PESHAWAR, Aug 17: Bureaucracy in the Civil Secretariat Fata seems to be a major hurdle to the establishment of first university in Federally Administered Tribal Areas as Rs1.5 billion fund allocated to the project in federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in financial year 2012-13 has lapsed, sources said.

Moreover, the Governor Secretariat and Civil Secretariat are also adamant to implement the Peshawar High Court’s orders concerning restoration of the vice-chancellor of the proposed university, Dr Shafiqur Rehman, who was terminated from his job only 44 days after assuming the charge on January 1, 2013. Later, a retired bureaucrat Mohammad Ishfaq Khattak was appointed the new VC.

Sources in the Civil Secretariat told Dawn that after the court orders Ishfaq Khattak was also relieved from the post of VC on the directives of Governor Engineer Shaukatullah, who is chancellor of the proposed university, and the post was now lying vacant.

“The Fata University project is in cold storage and Rs1.5 billion allocated to it in the PSDP have lapsed,” said an official. Separately, he said that an amount of Rs100 million allocated to the project in the previous Fata Annual Development Programme could not be utilised.

Well-placed sources said that both the governor and civil secretariats instead of implementing the court orders had planned to re-advertise the post and a proposal was under consideration to ask the President, who is constitutional head of the Fata, to appoint a “suitable person” to the post.

Secretary education, Fata, Abid Majeed, who is also secretary to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, was contacted for comments, but he did not reply.

However, officials said that the governor had withdrawn both the orders.

The federal government has planned to establish two universities in the tribal region. There are 37 colleges in seven tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions in which officials said around 100,000 boys and girls had been enrolled. All these colleges would be affiliated with the proposed universities. Some of the colleges had been closed due to militancy in the area.

Under the proposed plan, one university would be set up in FR Peshawar and another in Parachinar, Kurram Agency. After approval of the PSDP funds the Civil Secretariat decided to establish the Fata University in the bombed building of Degree College for Boys in Akhorwal, Darra Adamkhel.

After fulfilling procedural formalities the then governor Masood Kausar appointed Dr Shafiq as VC cum project director of the university on January 1, 2013.

He was directed to open liaison office in Fata Education Foundation to start work on the project.

However, according to Dr Shafiq, some senior officials at the governor and civil secretariats were prejudiced against him and he was not even allowed to meet the governor to discuss the project. He was terminated on March 8, 2013 and a retired DMG officer Ishfaq Khattak was appointed the new VC.

Dr Shafiq filed a writ petition in the PHC against his termination and a two-member bench comprising Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Musarrat Hilali gave the plaintiff interim relief on May 22. The court order says: “In the meanwhile the operation of impugned notification NO-FS/SO(E)VC/566-79 dated 8.3.2013 withdrawing the appointment orders of the petitioner is suspended.”

The officials said that the orders concerning appointment of Ishfaq Khattak as VC had been withdrawn and the post was now lying vacant.

Dr Shafiq said that despite getting interim relief from the court he was not allowed to start his work and after that he filed a contempt case.