The Punjab government is set to start an inquiry against government post-graduate Islamia College for Women Cooper Road Principal Farzana Shaheen for alleged involvement in academic corruption, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday.
Punjab Higher Education (HED) sources said college faculty met HED secretary Ejaz Munir, briefed him on alleged corruption and misconduct by the college principal Farzana and submitted a written complaint against her. They said an application against her had also been sent to the CM Secretariat, asking for a probe into the matter.
The application, available with Pakistan Today, demands that the Punjab CM Punjab lodge an inquiry against Principal Farzana Shaheen and also replaced her. The application says department heads, professors, lecturers and other faculty members combined to allege Farazana was corrupt and pressurised teachers to ‘tamper results’ as per wish. The application says the principal was treating senior staff like ‘personal servants’. The application demands an impartial inquiry against Farzana in consultation with college staff. A faculty member, on anonymity, alleged that a number of teachers were habitual absentees but shown as present on the attendance register. She said the college started the four year BS honors programme last year but the college was doing poorly under Farzana’s stewardship. She said college teachers were performing poorly, affecting student results. She said the college caters to lower middle class students from the walled city who could not afford another college.
Another faculty member said Farzana had an MA Education degree, which was not enough to be principal of a post graduate college and demanded that the government replace her with a competent principal. A senior faculty member said this was the first time in the history of Islamia college that teachers had started a movement against the principal.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Principal Farzana Shaheen denied the allegations and said she worked with the faculty as a team. She said no one had complained against her in college and academic activities were continuing well and she had launched developments projects in her tenure. The historic college was established in 1939 by Anjaman-e-Himayat Islam to provide Muslim women equal opportunity to obtain education. The college was transferred to the government in 1972.