LAHORE: The Punjab government on Tuesday appointed vice chancellors in six more universities of the province after a considerable delay on the part of Governor House, that had raised objections to the process of appointment.

The government had initiated the process of appointing VCs in 25 Public sector universities across Punjab two months ago.

Over 600 candidates were interviewed for top slots of the these universities, with the search committees forwarding the names of the top three candidates for each position to the provincial government.

As per the notification issued by the Higher Education Department (HED), Prof Rauf-e-Azam was appointed vice chancellor of the Government College University Faisalabad, Prof Uzma Qureshi of the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), Prof Bushra Mirza of the Fatima Jinnah University Rawalpindi, Prof Shazia Bashir of the Women University Sialkot, Prof Shazia Anjum of the Government Sadiq College Women University, Bahawalpur, and Prof Kanwal Ameen was posted as the Government College Women University Faisalabad vice chancellor.

Earlier, Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider Khan had raised concerns over the process of appointment of VCs in the public sector universities.

10 varsities, including GCU Lahore, still await heads

He vowed to stop these appointments, raising objections to some candidates picked for the VC slots by the Punjab government.

However, the Punjab government and HED removed the objections and sent back the summaries to the Governor House, but the VCs appointment notifications could not be issued.

About role of governor in the process of appointment of the VCs after the 18th Amendment, the Constitution of Pakistan clearly states, “The governor shall act in accordance with the advice of the cabinet or chief minister for appointment of VCs. The governor may require the cabinet or the chief minister to reconsider such advice, whether generally or otherwise, within 15 days. If the CM sends the summary again the governor has to act in accordance with the advice after reconsideration within 10 days.”

The constitution further states, “the question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered to the governor by the chief minister shall not be inquired into in, or by, any court, tribunal or other authority.”

The government issued the notification of six other VCs after a laps of 15 days, completing the legal formalities.

Meanwhile, the appointment of VCs was pending in 10 other universities, including the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB), Information Technology University (ITU) Lahore, Women University Multan (WUM), University of Home Economics (UHE) Lahore, University of Narowal, University of Okara, University of Jhang, Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan, University of Bhakkar and University of Layyah.

The delay in the appointment against these important varsity slots is further contributing to the uncertainty in these institutions already affected by leadership gap.

It is also fueling concerns about the management of these universities, already grappling with academic and administrative challenges.

Earlier, the Punjab government had issued notifications appointing VCs to seven universities. These include: Prof Muhammad Ali Shah as VC of the University of the Punjab, Prof Shahid Munir of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, Prof Zubair Iqbal of Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Prof Amir Azam Khan of Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology Rahim Yar Khan, Prof Aqif Anwar Chaudhry of the University of Education Lahore, Prof Inayatullah Khan of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Taxila, and Prof Ahmed Shuja as VC of the University of Gujrat.

However, Prof Shuja opted out of his role at the University of Gujrat due to his mother’s health condition.

The Government College University (GCU) Lahore has also been working without a regular vice chancellor for more than a year.

A senior HED official, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the summaries for the appointment of VCs in all universities were sent to chief minister’s office and Governor House some weeks ago, but they did not receive the summaries back yet.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2024