The Peshawar University’s Teachers Association on Friday warned they might consider giving up their positions if the government removes the varsity’s vice chancellor to resolve the matter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Murad Saeed’s degree.
MPA Saeed’s degree was challenged when some student activists accused him of passing his Remote Sensing, Introduction to Environmental Sciences and Ecology papers in an hour. Saeed subsequently approached the high court. The MNA argued that he had attended UoP from 2005 to 2009 for his undergraduate studies and passed all his courses in the given timeframe. The Environmental Sciences Department chairman had issued a course completion certificate on November 26, 2009 and despite repeated attempts, Saeed was informed the varsity administration will send his degree by post. The varsity had later argued that Saeed still needed to clear three papers. Later, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government established a committee, empowering the additional secretary higher education and additional secretary law to probe the matter. A summary forwarded to the KP CM by the secretary of the Higher Education Department holds UoP Vice Chancellor Rasool Jaan responsible, stating that MNA Saeed was deliberately being denied his degree. In his report, secretary education charged the VC with misconduct, advocating his removal under the amended university act of 2015. The summary recommends that the chief minister advise KP governor, who is also the chancellor of UoP, to sack the vice chancellor.
The recommendation to remove the VC sparked wide spread protests at the university on Friday evening. Professors said that they would not let the government sack the VC over an MNA’s degree, and warned that hundreds of teachers across the province will quit in protest.
