In the last week of January this year, a large number of teachers and other employees of the Punjab University (PU) gathered inside the campus to celebrate the appointment of Dr Mujahid Kamran as acting vice chancellor. They raised slogans in his favour and demanded the government to appoint him as vice chancellor for the third term as well.
It was rare to see such an activity that looked more like a political congregation, inside an institute of higher learning.
At about the same time, several serving teachers of the university and retired employees were standing in front of the Punjab Assembly holding banners. They were condemning what they termed undue patrionisation of Dr Mujahid Kamran by the Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif. They had gathered under the platform of ‘Save PU Movement’ formed by the dissenting teachers.
Their foremost demands from the government were to cancel his interim appointment and term him ineligible for the third term as VC as he had obtained the age of 65 years.
The situation has caught the attention of the general public and media; so far the choice of a permanent VC has not been announced.
Reportedly, a summary in this regard has reached the office of the chief minister but it has not been signed yet. The opponents contest the fact that Dr Kamran should not be re-employed as he has enjoyed two consecutive stints as PU vice chancellor. When his second term expired on January 22, 2016, they say, the Higher Education Department (HED) forwarded the name of Dr Taqi Zahid Butt, the senior most professor at the university to the CM’s Secretariat, for appointment as the acting vice-chancellor. But despite the recommendation, Dr Kamran, himself an applicant for VC’s post, was awarded the slot.
Sami Uzair Khan, former principal of PU Law College and currently an assistant professor there, tells TNS that they do not have any personal vendetta against Dr Kamran. "Our demands are logical and we want the CM to realise that nobody is indispensible, especially when one does not have a legal standing to hold a post."
He says that as per law the senior most professor shall hold the post of the acting vice chancellor till the appointment of the permanent one. But in this case, Dr Kamran was given the post a day before the completion of his term.
Khan complains that although Dr Kamran is eligible for appointment as VC, as he is under the age of 65 at the time of applying for the post, he shall not be allowed to continue till the completion of his four-year term till the age of 69. If there is an age limit for eligibility there should also be an age limit for retirement, he says. "They have challenged this provision in the court."
Khan is the person who had challenged the appointment of Dr Shazia Qureshi, the wife of Dr Kamran, as professor and Dean Law College of Punjab University, in Lahore High Court. He says that though on the orders of the court she was demoted to the post of associate professor, on charges of plagiarism, she still holds the post of the principal of Law College. This is just one example of how nepotism has permeated in the ranks of the university, he comments.
Khurram Shahzad, the spokesman for the PU, rejects the allegations of state patronisation and says the appointment of Dr Kamran as acting VC has been vetted by Justice Shahid Karim of LHC. "So, once there are the clear-cut orders of the court, there is no room for questioning."
He also defends the last two appointments of Dr Kamran, saying that these were purely on merit. "Dr Kamran was the first VC in the country who was appointed in the most transparent way by a search committee in 2008. Even today, the score obtained by Dr Kamran is the highest among the three applicants and most of it is due to his academic qualifications and administrative experience."
A contestant for the Academic Staff Association (ASA) elections, due on March 10, 2016, has a long list of charges, allegations and apprehensions. He asks as to why a person with no worthwhile achievements seems indispensible to the rulers. For example, he says, the 165 years old university has not established a single medical college while universities of Sargodha and Gujrat did that within 5 to 6 years of it coming into being.
He ridicules the status of the second best university in the country awarded to the PU by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and alleges that research students are enrolled in three shifts just to retain this status.
He says that Dr Kamran should not have been considered for re-appointment as cases against him are being heard by NAB for wrongly attesting degrees and irregularities in tendering university land for Daewoo Bus terminal.
Another charge that he brings forward is that different posts are not filled and due promotions denied by the VC just to maintain the seniority of his favourites. Citing an example, he says there is only one full professor against the sanctioned strength of around 20 in the departments of physics, high energy physics, space sciences and The Center of Excellence in Solid State Physics.
Sami Uzair Khan says that the real issue why the government is supporting Dr Kamran is that the latter has assured that he will help them acquire 703 kanals of university land on 99-year lease for commercial purposes. This land is situated along the newly constructed road that passes through the university and connects Allama Iqbal Town with Canal Road and has an estimated worth between Rs70-75 billion. "We did not object as this served the public but commercialisation of university land for personal gains cannot be approved."
Khan says Dr Kamran somehow manages to get his own people into the bodies like the senate, the syndicate, the academic council etc to get approvals and overcome expected resistance from staff in such cases. "He is also concerned about the fate of 450 acres of PU land falling towards the Tech Society up till Suparco which may also be leased out if the onslaught of Dr Kamran and his patrons is not checked."
The PU spokesman Khurram Shahzad rubbishes the claims and says the PU has acquired second position due to the quality and quantity of research work produced at the institution, an ideal student-teacher ratio etc. In 2008, when Dr Kamran took over, its ranking was around 6 in the country.
He says the allegations against Dr Kamran about promising land lease to the government in reward for his appointment are not backed by any evidence. The teachers in the opposition can just level allegations but cannot bring even a single proof of financial irregularity against Dr Kamran to validate their claim. "There is not a single audit para that has to be applied to."
On the issue of demotion of Dr Shazia, the wife of Dr Kamran, on the orders of the LHC, Shahzad says the case has been challenged in the Supreme Court, contesting that the method of her promotion to the post of professor was the same as adopted in other cases.