Mujahid Kamran appointed acting VC of Punjab University even after the end of his second term in office
Kamran may have a leg up in the race for permanent VC of PU for a third term
The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) issued a notification on Thursday to give the interim charge of the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Punjab University to the incumbent VC Dr Mujahid Kamran, whose term is set to expire on January 22.
The chief minister allegedly went out of his way to give favour to Dr Mujahid Kamran as the HED had forwarded a summary to chief minister on January 18 in which the department proposed that the interim charge of Punjab University should be assigned to Dr Taqi Zahid Butt, the senior most professor at the university. However, the Chief Minister’s Secretariat sent back the summary to the HED on January 20, replacing the name of Dr Taqi Zahid Butt with Dr Mujahid Kamran.
The Higher Education Department was already in the process of hiring a new vice chancellor as per law and the post was advertised on November 4 last year to seek applications from potential candidates. While an official decision on the new vice chancellor is still awaited, the old VC, who has yet again applied for position, is clearly ahead in the race as he managed to get the interim charge also.
The search committee has completed the interviews of the short-listed candidates and has forwarded its recommendation to the HED. The members of the search committee included Syed Babar Ali of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairperson Dr Nizamud Din, Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi and HED Secretary Irfan Ali.
The HED forwarded the names to CM secretariat, according to the procedure for appointment of the permanent VC. The CM sends an advice to the governor for the appointment of vice chancellor and the summary comes back from the same channel to HED. According to the sources, Dr Taqi Zahid Butt, Dr Mujahid Kamran and Dr Zafar Jadoon are being considered strong contenders for the coveted office.
A source in the HED told Pakistan Today that the summary for the appointment of permanent VC had been forwarded to the CM Secretariat two days ago. He revealed that it could take almost a month before the summary is returned from the CM Secretariat and, therefore, the interim arrangement has been made.
When contacted, Punjab University Spokesman Khurram Shahzad told Pakistan Today that a notification had been received which named Dr Mujahid Kamran as acting vice chancellor of the Punjab University.
He said that the summary in which the name of Dr Taqi Zahid Butt was proposed may be a fake document as it was signed by the HED secretary himself. He added that such documents are not signed by the secretary as it is the job of the section officer concerned to sign them. However, the document declaring Dr Mujahid Kamran as VC has not been signed by the section officer either, Khurram confirmed.
very nice article, it shows the true face of our 'so called' merit based system. This is what our leadership does behind the curtains for their own benefits which a common man normally doesn't see.
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