Least number of PhDs in search committee for Sindh varsities’ VCs

Among the search committees established for the vice chancellor in the four provinces of the country and Azad Kashmir, the lowest number of PhD members are included in the Sindh search committee.

The interesting thing about the Sindh search committee is that out of its four permanent members, not a single member is a PhD. In the notification of the provinces received by Jang, the special thing about the search committees of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Balochistan was that the heads of the committees are from other provinces and there is a significant number of PhD members.

The convener of the Balochistan search committee is Dr Asma Haider, a dean of IBA Karachi, and the other members include Dr Dost Mohammad, VC of Lasbela University, Dr Ram, principal secretary to the governor, and member of Planning Commission Rafiullah Kakar.

The convener of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa search committee is former HEC chairman Dr Atta-ul-Rehman, and the other members include LUMS dean Dr Arif Nazir Butt, Dr Iqbal Chaudhry of COMSTEC, former VC Dr Muhammad Hafeezullah and rector of Haripur Institute Dr Muhammad Mujahid. Former VC Dr Zahoor A Swati and the higher education secretary are also included in the committee.

The Azad Kashmir search committee, which was formed for the VC of Poonch University, is headed by Dr Raza Bhatti, VC of Shikarpur University. Its other members include Dr Razia Sultan, VC of Peshawar Women's University, VC of Lahore Women's University Dr Bushra Mirza, VC of Fatima Jinnah University Dr Samina Amin Qadir, Additional Chief Secretary Dr Liaqat Hussain, Brigadier (retd) Tahir Jaral and National Professor of Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Aslam Baig.

Former federal minister Shafqat Mehmood is the convener of the search committee for the VC of University of Okara in Punjab, and the other members include former VC of Punjab University Dr Khalid Hameed, LUMS Professor Dr Arif Nazir Butt, Punjab HEC Chairman Dr Shahid Munir and Higher Education Commission secretary.

Among the four permanent members of the Sindh search committee, the chairman is the convener of the Sindh Higher Education Search Committee, and its members are the secretaries of grade 19 and grade 20, including the boards and universities secretary, college education secretary and Sindh HEC secretary. Among the 10 co-opted members, only four members have PhD, while two are medical doctors.

Among these 10 co-opted members are retired bureaucrats Sohail Akbar Shah and Dr Pirzada Qasim for general universities, and Dr Naushad A. Shaikh and Dow University Vice Chancellor Dr Saeed Qureshi for medical universities. For engineering universities, two members have been appointed as co-opted members who include Mehran Engineering University former dean Bhawani Shankar and former VC Abdul Rehman Memon. IBA Executive Director Dr Akbar Zaidi and Tariq Amin, non-PhD director of Saleem Habib University, have been appointed as members for business universities. Former executive director of UBL Asif Sindhu and additional secretary finance have been appointed co-opted members for the director finance.