ISLAMABAD: Pir Mehr Ali Shah (PMAS) Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi has been running without a regular vice-chancellor (VC) for a year now.
Dr Rae Niaz was appointed as a regular vice-chancellor (VC) of the PMAS university for a four-year term on 24.01.2013 with an immediate effect.
After he completed his tenure on 23.01.2017, the chancellor had to assign his duties to the pro-vice-chancellor (VC) on 24.01.2017 until the appointment of a regular vice-chancellor.
The government has to appoint a regular VC one week after the tenure of a regular VC ends.
Since the government failed to appoint a regular VC, the university has had to rely on the pro-vice-chancellor. Because of the temporary assignment of duties, the position of pro-vice-chancellor is also vacant.
As a solution, Dr Rai Niaz was appointed as the pro-vice chancellor on a temporary basis which was to be either three years, or until the appointment of a regular vice-chancellor.
Following these chain of events, the Lahore High Court (LHC) accepted a petition against Dr Rai Niaz filed by Mr Muhammad Hussain Cheema stating that the pro-vice chancellor was superseded without following proper procedure.
The LHC in its verdict of this case issued an order that the original pro-vice-chancellor, Dr Sarwat N Mirza will perform duties until a regular VC is not appointed and Dr Rai Niaz is to leave the charge with immediate effect.
Order further stated that in this matter the temporary appointment of pro-vice-chancellor was superseded without issuing a notification to the pro-vice-chancellor to follow proper procedure.
In November an attempt was made by holding interviews for the regular appointment of VC’s at the Arid Agriculture University of Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.
However, soon after the interviews, a petition was again filed in the LHC against the illegalities being committed in the impugned appointment process by Professor Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa through his counsel.
In the first hearing of the case, the counsel, Ahsan Bhoon on the behalf of the petitioner argued that the direction of the high court had not been implemented in the process initiated by the VC.
He also stated that the search committee started a procedure based on an old advertisement that was different from other universities which are a violation of court’s instructions.
In the last hearing on Wednesday, the LHC adjourned hearing till 10 January and sought a reply from Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and others.
