GCU transport suspension feared

LAHORE
The crisis surfaced in the wake of absence of Vice-Chancellor (VC), regular or acting one, at the Government College University (GCU) has deepened as the varsity fears closure of transport facility for students from Monday since the administration has failed to clear the bills.
Sources in the university said the bills for salaries to the varsity’s gazetted and non-gazetted staff, remuneration to visiting faculty, petrol/diesel and utilities including electricity, telephone and gas, had been pending since July 27, 2015 and could not be processed as approval of VC was required as per financial statutes of the university.
It is pertinent to mention here that the post of GCU Vice-Chancellor has been vacant since July 25 after tenure of Dr Khaliq-ur-Rahman expired.
GCU Lahore is among 10 universities of Punjab for which the government has been in search of VC since mid-May this year as the Search Committee finalised its recommendations around that time. A delay is being witnessed vis-à-vis appointment of VCs at all these varsities and the institutes have been facing administrative and financial problems like GCU in the absence of regular administrative heads.
Meanwhile, in a press statement issued Friday, the GCU Academic Staff Association (GCU-ASA) has demanded that the emergent meeting of the varsity’s syndicate summoned by the Registrar in the absence of the Vice-Chancellor, on Saturday (today) should remain restricted to the payment of salaries, utility bills, transport and admissions, and no matter related to faculty members or staff shall be taken up until the appointment of executive head of the institution. The demand was based on a resolution passed by the executive body of the GCU Academic Staff Association (ASA) in a meeting on Friday. The ASA also announced dispatching a copy of resolution to the syndicate members.
The resolution, presented by GCU ASA General Secretary Dr Hamid Mukhtar, also called upon Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to expedite the appointment of regular Vice-Chancellor of the university. “Now, even an acting vice-chancellor is not acceptable to the faculty in the wake of severe academic, financial and administrative crisis which had engulfed the university,” stated the resolution.
The executive body requested the member syndicate to look carefully into the agenda of the meeting and do not approve any such matter which may affect current academic and administrative structure of the university. The faculty members also requested the syndicate to not approve any new appointment. However, the matters related to payment of salaries, remunerations, overtime, utility bills and fuel for transportation and generators should be justly decided by the syndicate, so that the routine affairs of the university were not affected.
Dr Hamid Mukhtar said the need of such an emergent meeting would not have arisen had the government appointed the regular Vice-Chancellor on time.
The GCU ASA also welcomed the decision of the Punjab government to appoint the vice-chancellors for tenure of four years, saying that “two years are not enough for the implementation of academic policies by a head of institution.”