THIS is with reference to the report ‘Academics call for fresh ad to appoint KU vice chancellor’ (July 15), which, at best, has presented one side of the story. The fact of the matter is that after the death of Dr Ajmal Khan, the former vice chancellor (VC) of the University of Karachi, on May 5, 2019, the Universities and Board Department of the Government of Sindh published an advertisement for the vacant post and asked the applicants to apply before July 15, 2019.

When the university published a corrigendum to the said advertisement, senior faculty members challenged it in the Sindh High Court (SHC) which, on Jan 26, 2021, declared the corrigendum illegal. Later, the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) also upheld the SHC judgment, and the corrigendum was set aside.

Subsequently, a new search committee was formed, which recommended the names of three most suitable candidates for the post.

Now that the provincial chief minister has interviewed the three candidates and a final notification is expected soon, some individuals, especially those who could not make it to the final stage, have started misleading the public, and are demanding a fresh start altogether. This is a completely misleading narrative, which the said report propagated while ignoring the facts and the views of those concerned.

Contrary to what the report implied, the procedure and the guidelines set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the appointment of VCs apply to the University of Karachi just as they do to all other universities in the country.

According to these rules, an applicant needs to have at least five research papers published in the preceding five years. One would do well to recall the removal by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) from office of Dr Altaf Hussain, a VC of the Federal Urdu University, on the basis of this very rule.

Now, after four long years, when the process of notifying a full-time VC is on the verge of completion, a few individuals are trying to have the entire process start afresh in their own vested interest.

Factually speaking, any attempt at re-advertisement will be in violation of the SHC and SCP judgments cited above.

Over the last four years, the University of Karachi, which is a premier seat of higher learning in the country, has suffered a lot in academic, financial, administrative and all other aspects under temporary VCs. It deserves to get a full-time VC without any further delay. It will be rather unfotunate if that does not happen soon.

Dr Tausif Ahmed Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2022