A tale of two elite institutions

ISLAMABAD: Two elite educational institutions face a leadership crisis and it is being exacerbated by those who are supposed to resolve it.

Aitchison College’s principal, Michael A Thompson, left by the end of May. The search committee picked a distinguished educationist, Dr SM Turab Hussain, as his replacement. This was approved by the Board of Governors during a meeting. The principal-designate has resigned from the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Whether he will be able to assume a new position? His future hangs in the balance.

Reason: The minutes of the meeting which approved Dr Hussain’s appointment have not been signed yet by the Governor of Punjab who is president of the board. This has resulted in delay of the issuance of the notification of the principal’s appointment. He is supposed to assume the office from August 1 but there seems a remote possibility in the absence of a notification. Relevant quarters fear that Dr Hussain’s appointment may not actualise.

Lawrence College Murree is another case in point. Brig (R) Mujahid Alam, its principal, was supposed to quit by the end of May. A committee was to search for his replacement who would assume office on June 1 as per the decision taken in the meeting held on March 11. Nothing happened because the minutes of the meeting were issued eight weeks later leaving behind only two weeks for the appointment of the new principal.

Brig (R) Alam has been the principal since 2013. According to documents available with The News, his tenure couldn’t be specified and remained open-ended. The Board of Directors tried to fix the anomaly by validating the tenure till May 31, 2024.

The board struggled to get the decisions implemented by issuing reminders to the Governor of Punjab who is the president of the board. A meeting was called at 72-hour notice but was cancelled a day ago. Meanwhile, as many as seven members were summarily removed in violation of the Punjab Educational Institutions Act 2021 which says that a member can only be removed (before the completion of 3-year term) if he has become of unsound mind, incapacitated, convicted or failed to attend three consecutive meetings.

Also, members have been appointed. The removal has been challenged in Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench. A meeting has been called today (Saturday) to review the decisions taken in the March 11 meeting including about the principal. The Governor of Punjab didn’t answer the questions sent by The News.