Administrative crisis mars functioning of most KP universities

PESHAWAR: Severe administrative crisis has marred the functioning of different public sector universities as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has failed so far to appoint regular vice-chancellors for majority of these institutions.

The acting vice-chancellors, those given additional charges and the ones on extension, have been barred from taking major decisions, adversely affecting the functioning of some 25 of the 30 public sector universities.

The concerns expressed by the vice-chancellors’ committee and teaching associations have been falling on deaf ears. The Higher Education Department (HED) has also shown its reservations over the decision of barring majority of the universities from raking major decisions, but it was unable to overrule the decision taken directly by the KP Governor who also serves as the chancellor of the public sector universities.

A senior official in the HED told The News that the decision was not justifiable as the universities were autonomous bodies where decisions have to be taken on a daily basis. He added that banning the vice-chancellors from taking major decisions was tantamount to hampering the universities’ functioning.

“The decision has been taken directly by the governor without seeking our consent and we have no authority to intervene in governor’s directives and actions,” he said. The public sector universities have been passing through the worst of times since their inception as one after another crisis has affecting their functioning. The first crisis reported during the rule of the PTI government was financial when a number of universities expressed their inability even to pay salaries and pensions and made repeated appeals to the government as well as the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to give them bailout package to overcome the situation.

This demand could not be honoured and both the government and the HEC shut their eyes to it. The University of Peshawar (UoP), Agriculture University Peshawar and Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan were the most affected institutions financially. The UoP vice-chancellor even wrote a letter to the chief minister about the financial crisis and requested a bailout package. The letter went viral on social media, which perhaps infuriated those at the helm of affairs as instead of granting the bailout package the government sought details of their financial situation, income/expenditure and recruitments made during the last several years. The UoP also held an emergency meeting of its syndicate, which also failed to come up with a concrete strategy to deal with the situation. The only positive thing seen during the episode was the assurance of financial assistance given to the UoP administration by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra.

The universities were battling severe financial crisis when they got engaged in serious administrative crisis as majority of them were not having regular heads owing to the undue lengthy process of appointment of vice-chancellors and the government’s lethargy to tackle the situation swiftly.

The inability of the government to deal with the issue of making timely appointment of vice-chancellors can be judged from the fact that the process for Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar was completed a year ago, but the notification could not be issued so far. Interestingly, Dr Razia Sultana has been serving as vice-chancellor of the university for the last six years. Her four-year tenure expired in April 2018 and she was given extension until appointment of a new vice-chancellor. The process of selection took a year. Now another year has passed since the completion of the process but the final decision is yet to be taken.

She has been recommended for the position on regular basis for another term. But reports say that one of the two other candidates recommended for the position was influential enough to delay the final notification for more than a year. The two other candidates included Dr Ghazala Yasmin, vice-chancellor Women University Mardan, and Dr Noor Jahan, director Disaster Management Centre, UoP.

Ghazala Yasmin happens to be the wife of principal secretary to governor and this is seen as the major cause of delay in the final notification, sources said. The notification for appointment of vice-chancellors of eight more universities has also been withheld for the past several months. The process was completed in December 2019 and summary for the appointment was moved accordingly. However, the summary got stuck in the chief minister’s secretariat after some alleged anomalies were pointed out in the process. As per procedure, the chief minister has the authority to select one from among the panel of three recommended candidates, most probably the one on top of the list, and send the summary to the governor/chancellor for final approval. After the approval of the chancellor, the HED issues the notification.

But the summary is still lying at the chief minister’s secretariat. Some reports suggested that the standing committee of the National Assembly had taken notice of the alleged anomalies in the process and sought details from the provincial government. Sources said that the matter was pending before the standing committee and the process had been stopped.

“No such letter has been received by the HED from the National Assembly. We got only one letter and that too at a time when we had actually moved the summary,” the official said. He added that as per law, no such letter or directive from National Assembly could hamper the process for appointment of vice-chancellor or taking other major decisions about universities, which function under the provincial act.

The positions of eight more vice-chancellors were advertised in January this year. Some of these offices were already vacant, while others would be vacated by June next on completion of the tenure of the incumbent vice-chancellors.

In such a situation, the directives from the Governor House banning major decisions at majority of the institutions resulted in further administrative crisis as the selection boards, syndicate meetings and other important matters, which had been pending for years, got further delayed.

Amid all these problems, the issue of sexual harassment resurfaced in several universities, with the most serious situation in Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan where one professor has been forced to resign and four more employees have been sacked. An inquiry against four more professors in the same university is also in progress. An inquiry has been started in Malakand University against a professor on the complaint of a foreign student. Reports of sexual harassment have also been coming out of other universities. This situation requires early and drastic steps on the part of the government to put things in order and ensure smooth functioning of the universities.