Fuuast senate meeting to finalise VC candidate tomorrow

The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology’s (Fuuast) senate will hold an imperative meeting on Tuesday (tomorrow) in Islamabad. The meeting, with Pakistan President and Fuuast Chancellor Dr Arif Alvi in chair, aims to finalise the selection of the educational institution’s permanent vice chancellor.

The Fuuast search committee has approved five names for the VC post: Dr Bakht Jahan, Dr Muhammad Ali Shah, Dr Zabta Shinwari, Dr Athar Mehboob and Dr Zakir Zakaria. The senate will select three of the five names, then the president will select one of the three names for the post.

In the light of Fuuast’s financial crisis, Shahid Shafiq, a notable member of the senate from Karachi, had proposed conducting the meeting in the city to alleviate the burden on the university’s financial resources. He highlighted the dire situation, saying that salaries and pensions of faculty and staff remain unpaid amid the crisis.

The meeting will see the participation of a substantial number of senate members through videoconferencing. However, concerns have arisen regarding the timing of the meeting, when the constitutional period of the caretaker government is about to end, and with the presidential election due next month.

Additionally, none of the five candidates under consideration hails from Sindh, prompting the speculation about a potential shift of the university’s principal seat to Islamabad. Given that both the Fuuast chancellor and pro-chancellor (interim education minister) hail from Sindh, there are apprehensions regarding the motives behind such a shift.