ISLAMABAD: The COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) in its syndicate maiden meeting has drafted basic statutes, rules and regulations for the university upon its up-gradation from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CUT) to university despite strong reservations by its Academic Staff Council.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Acting Rector of the CUI, Prof Dr Raheel Qamar said that since the COMSATS turned into a full-fledged university hence the syndicate meeting was needed to draft necessary Rules and Regulation for governance of the university.
He said that since there were no clearly defined rules for the running of the university; so it could create problems for them in running the university.
He also said that in the meeting, the basic rules of business required for running affairs of the university were framed as well as, making sure of the appointments of the permanent rector, treasurer, registrar, controller, directors and composition of an academic council.
Only the much-needed minimum governance rules were drafted because there are no elected syndicate representatives, as the major governance rules and mechanism for the CUI could not be framed without the presence of the elected syndicate representatives.
In the meeting, he said that election rules have been discussed and seconded which would be presented to the Senate for approval to elect faculty members for these bodies, adding that permanent appointment on positions of a rector, director and registrar would be made since there is only one permanent director of the university. He assured that all these positions would be properly advertised.
About reservation of the staffers, since almost all including the rector and registrar have the acting charge, he said that they don’t have the authority to draft rules of business. He further added that those having acting charge did not mean have they have a full charge of running the affairs of the university.
The acting rector said that he had sought nomination from all heads of departments and three faculty members were present in the meeting as observers so that they could oversee the proceedings.
However, he said that there would be no meeting until an election is held and the date for election could only be fixed when all decisions taken during the meeting are approved by the Senate. No decision can be implemented without prior approval of the president.
However, the Academic Staff Council (ASC) of COMSATS University Islamabad termed the syndicate meeting in clear violation of the set rules. They believe that since there is no permanent rector, registrar and treasurer; the interim administration did not have the authority to take such a decision.
The council said that they view with great alarm the undue haste being shown by CUI’s interim administration as it the meeting was held in the complete absence of elected representatives of the faculty in both the Senate and syndicate as required by the COMSATS University Act. Additionally, the directors of many campuses are on acting charge and some of the deans are sitting on the positions beyond their maximum prescribed term.
They said that passing of statutes as well as, rules and regulations in the current situation is in violation of the spirit of the Act that governs CUI, democratic norms, and promises made on the floor of the parliament.
CUI ASC Professor Mahnaz Haseeb Convener said that the statutes have been drafted under an unnecessary veil of secrecy and are on the verge of implementation without feedback from the faculty of CUI who are the primary stakeholders of the university.
He said that as per the COMSATS University Act 2018, law-making is essentially the responsibility of the Senate where the elected representation of the faculty is guaranteed as well as, promised on the floor of National Assembly (NA) by the CUT Chancellor and minister for Science and Technology.
Until today, unfortunately, three months after the passing of the bill, no concrete steps have been taken for the placement of elected representation of faculty of CUI in the Senate. Instead, a ‘consultative committee’ has been formed unilaterally consisting of unknown members.
The ASC demanded that the draft of the statutes, rules and relations be shared with the faculty immediately and elections date for faculty representations in Senate and syndicate be announced as early as possible.
A senior official on the condition of anonymity told this scribe that three of academic staff members were invited but not allowed to sit in the meeting.
