Gomal University VC Maj Gen (retd) Hamid Shafiq resigns

Quick turnover of VCs at the institution continues

PESHAWAR:  The Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan has seen a quick turnover of vice-chancellors in recent years and its present Vice-Chancellor Major General (R)  Hamid Shafiq too has resigned and will spend his last day in his office today.

When asked about the reason for his resignation, Maj Gen (R) Hamid Shafiq said he quit due to personal reasons. “I have some personal commitments and couldn’t continue as vice-chancellor,” he stressed.

When reminded that he was appointed for four-year tenure after an elaborate selection process and was leaving office barely a year after his appoointment, the outgoing vice-chancellor said he managed to improve things at the university during the last one and a half year. He maintained that he was leaving Gomal University in a better shape.

Maj Gen (R) Hamid Shafiq, who is a physician, was selected by a search committee in a tough contest with many other candidates.  Though his term originally was for four years, the amendments made in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012 reduced tenures of all vice-chancellors of public sector universities to three years.

Another amendment said only candidates with PhD degrees only could in future become the vice-chancellor. Maj Gen (R) Hamid Shafiq is one of the three vice-chancellors of public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who isn’t holding the PhD degree. The other two are the University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar Vice-Chancellor Imtiaz Hussain Gilani and Islamia College University Vice-Chancellor Ajmal Khan.

Though Maj Gen ® Hamid Shafiq didn’t elaborate the reason for his resignation, the fact that he didn’t have a PhD degree could have contributed to it. However, he had been intending to resign earlier as well and had reportedly informed Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan about it. Finally it was decided that he will quit on December 31, 2015.

Though Maj Gen ® belonged to Dera Ismail Khan, his family has been living in Rawalpindi.Before him, Dr Inayatullah Babar served as acting vice-chancellor of Gomal University for about 10 months. And prior to him, Dr Amanullah served as the vice-chancellor for the briefest of tenure just for about 10 days before dying.  Dr Mansoor Akbar Kundi had earlier completed his four year tenure as the vice-chancellor of the Gomal University.

Gomal University has been a difficult place to run due to strikes by students, groupings among teachers, political interference and certain ethnic issues. It was built on 11,000 kanals of land donated by local philanthropist and landlord Nawab Allah Nawaz Khan, who was appointed as its first vice-chancellor in 1974.