Senior academician retires after 35 years of service

PESHAWAR: Prof Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan has retired after serving higher education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in all capacities - from lecturer to a meritorious professor and vice-chancellor of several universities - for nearly three-and-a-half decades.

The journey of Prof Jahanzeb as an academician and administrator culminated as vice-chancellor of the University of Peshawar, an institution, which he had joined as a first-year student some 44 years ago.

Apart from having command over his subject, psychology, Dr Jahanzeb has been bestowed with administrative qualities which he demonstrated as vice-chancellor of the University of Swat, FATA University and the University of Peshawar. He also served as chairman of the Department of Psychology and Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Peshawar.

After receiving his primary education and graduation from Gordon College Rawalpindi, he completed his Master’s from the University of Peshawar.On completion of his master’s in psychology, he started working as a clinical psychologist at the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, the biggest health facility in the province.

But soon, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Peshawar where he completed his MPhil in Psychodiagnostics and then PhD in the area of Clinical Psychology focusing on Pakhtun ethnic studies along with teaching.

After completing his post-doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, he was appointed as professor and then chairman of the department where he started new programmes like BS and Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology and opened a Psychology Clinic and Assessment and Counselling Centre where people are getting psychological services.

He won a Public Support Development Programme (PSDP) project worth Rs48 million titled “Strengthening of Department of Psychology”. Meanwhile, he also served as Director Staff Training Institute and Managing Director Peshawar University Teachers’ Foundation.

Later, he was appointed as vice-chancellor, the University of Swat in 2011 at a time when the area had been badly plagued by terrorism. He was the first vice-chancellor of the university to have served practically for four years after the killing of his predecessor.

At the University of Swat, he established 25 new academic departments, secured and started a PSDP-cum-ADP project worth Rs2.5 billion titled “Establishment of University of Swat”.After completing his four-year tenure there, he returned to his parent department in 2015 and was given BPS-22 and appointed as chair of the department again and then Dean Faculty of Social Sciences.

In 2021, he was appointed as vice chancellor Fata University in Darra Adamkhel, another volatile area where he served for a full tenure of three years and returned in March 2024 after completing a PSDP project worth Rs1.7 billion titled “Establishment of FATA University” and made it fully functional with 18 departments amidst extreme security situation.

He rejoined his parent university as a Meritorious Professor in 2024. In May 2024, he was appointed as vice chancellor of the University of Peshawar in an officiating capacity.In 2012, he completed a short-term postdoc from Leicester University, UK. In 2022, he completed the National Security Workshop from the National Defense University in Islamabad.

During his academic career, Dr Jahanzeb designed and taught many courses, published many papers and completed some research projects.He has produced 15 PhDs and five MPhil students. He has served as editor of many research journals and has over 1000 citations as a social scientist. He has also remained president of the Pakistan Psychological Association.