Dr Qibla Ayyaz writes to CJP on IIUI affairs

ISLAMABAD: The Shariat Appellate Bench Ad Hoc Member and Member Board of Governors of the International Islamic University, Islamabad Dr Qibla Ayyaz has requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi to consider requisitioning the minutes of the last meeting of Board of Trustees (BOT) of the university held a year ago.

In his letter dispatched on December 13, Dr Ayyaz also requested the chief justice that the compliance report of the Supreme Court’s judgment as well as the agenda of the BOT meeting should also be summoned besides considering/directing the registrar to postpone the BOT meeting till the above documents were shared with his lordship.

“Your timely intervention may prove decisive in saving this great seat of learning from total destruction,” Dr Ayyaz wrote to the chief justice.

He further stated in his letter that the Supreme Court recently gave a landmark judgment on the public sector universities in Pakistan addressing the issues of bad governance and academic decline.

He informed the CJP that two universities in particular NFC Institute in Multan and International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI), had been found to be on the verge of collapse.

“In my capacity as Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, I worked as member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of IIUI and after my tenure ended, I no longer remain a member of BOT, but now I have been on its Board of Governors (BOG) for quite some time,” Dr Qibla Ayyaz wrote.

He informed the chief justice that the previous administration of IIUI was not convening the legally mandatory meetings of BOG and BOT as noted in the Supreme Court’s judgment adding that the rector was, therefore, suspended and the chairman HEC given the acting charge.

“He was supposed to improve the system and run the affairs of IIUI in accordance with its ordinance and statutes; however, to our utter disappointment, he has been ruining the whole system.

“He did convene the meeting of BOG on 6 December and did hold another of its session on 10 December, but in both these sessions his attitude was dictatorial and disrespectful not only to the members but also to the Supreme Court and its judgment,” he wrote.

He further informed the CJP that one of the most serious issues pointed out by the Supreme Court in its Judgment was that the previous rector had not issued the minutes of the last meeting of BOT held in December 2023 and they reminded the chairman HEC to issue the same but he had not done it so far.

He informed the chief justice that the minutes of these two sessions of BOG had not yet been recorded; a third session was supposed to be held on 17 December; the criteria for the President of the University has not yet been prepared by BOG; yet he has scheduled the meeting of BOT on 23 December, and that too in Riyadh.

“The purpose is to appoint the President of the University in sheer violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment,” he wrote adding that the Chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court had already regretted attending the said meeting.