Heads of two KU institutes exit after enjoying prolonged tenures

The heads of the University of Karachi's International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Engineering have finally left after serving for a long term.

The heads of both institutions, despite being retired, remained in office for a long time and had their tenures extended repeatedly. According to KU Acting Registrar Waheed Baloch, Prof Dr Farzana Shaheen has been given the charge of the ICCBS director in place of Dr Iqbal Chaudhry, whereas in place of Dr Abid Azhar who had been heading Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Engineering, the charge of the post of director general has been given to Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Iraqi because there was no professor there.

Under the ICCBS, two prominent research institutes — HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry and Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research — have been working, while many other institutes are active under the supervision of these two institutes. The only director of all these institutions was Dr Chaudhry, whose tenure ended after 21 years.

The interesting thing is that in 21 years, he not only held the directorship of all the institutions under the ICCBS but also held the position of the coordinator general of COMSTEC in Islamabad and he used to spend five days a week in Islamabad and two days in Karachi.

According to the KU acting registrar, the advertisement Dr Chaudhry suggested for the post of director last month was not approved by the varsity. Also due to the ban on recruitment, the appointment process was stopped.

According to the rules, a retired person cannot be appointed as a director. It may also be noted that Dr Attaur Rehman has been appointed in the varsity for an indefinite period after a post of patron in chief of the ICCBS was created. However, in the Act of the KU, the position does not exist.