Several Punjab University (PU) security guards on Sunday demanded the administration to take notice of PU Chief Security Officer (CSO) Major (r) Arif Butt’s alleged involvement in illegal appointment of security guards, Pakistan Today learnt.
According to sources, Butt, who is favoured by PU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran, recruited retired army personnel from Unit 54 Baloch on vacancies of security guards to set up a strong hold at the varsity. Butt said he hired army personnel from his own unit since he trusted their performance and credibility and that the recruitments were on merit.
Sources said the PU was already facing rumours about 400 illegal appointments made by the administration on various seats including certain key administrative posts. The VCs opponents have claimed the PU administration has made millions of rupees through corruption in hiring processes. However, the PU administration has maintained all recruitments have been on merit.
Appointing his own men: Sources said the PU administration had decided to recruit new security guards on the argument of shortage of security guards. The CSO Arif Butt had been assigned the task. Seeking anonymity, a senior administrative official said that Butt been able to ignore merit and hired ex-army men from his own unit on high salary packages due to his good good relations with the VC.
Also appointed faculty at the Institute of Business and Information Technology (IBIT), Arif Butt’s appointment as CSO was itself against PU’s one man, one post policy. After appointing the new guards, the CSO vacated the old security guards’ residence at D Block garage and allotted them to his ‘choice’ guards. The source said all PU security guards were now unsettled due to the discrimination. The CSO is also a faculty member and was hired by the varsity because of his army background in violation of the one-man-one-post policy.
‘Just a burden’: According to security guards, the new recruits are just a burden to the varsity as already around 300 security guards are performing duties on campus. They said the D Block residence was provided to old guards by former VC Lt Gen (r) Arshad Mahmood but the corrupt management has thrown the guards out of their houses. They said they were helpless and could not complain to the PU VC as Butt was favoured by him.
A PU faculty member said, “We are already questioning the CSO’s performance as torture incidents have increased at the varsity after his appointment.” He said the administration was also receiving complaints regarding him, questioning why he was appointed by the VC when he was not capable to control the varsity’s security matters. He said the IJT activists beat students in daylight and the CSO could not take action against them.
He suggested that the CSO should be replaced with someone capable. He said these appointments were earning a bad name for the varsity.
‘Only five men’: PU CSO Major (ret) Arif Butt said he had only recruited five men from the 54 Baloch unit and those were on merit with the entire appointment process was held in the presence of the varsity committee. He said a special squad was set up to control the security affairs and the D Block garage was vacated to house them.
