PA committee okays controversial amendments to VC appointment rules

A relevant standing committee of the Sindh Assembly, in its meeting on Tuesday, approved a draft of the bill, which, if passed by the house in coming days, will amend the procedure and rules governing the appointment of the vice-chancellors in the province’s public-sector universities.

The proposed changes in the rules and procedures for the appointment of the vice-chancellors of the public sector universities have already attracted strong criticism and vocal protest on the campuses by the concerned faculty members.

The meeting of the Standing Committee was especially attended by Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah, Sindh Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, and educationist Shehnaz Wazir Ali.

An MPA of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Dr Skindar Shoro, chaired the session. Talking to the media after the meeting, the standing committee chairman said the changes in the rules and procedures would allow the government to appoint persons holding master’s and PhD degrees as the VCs of the universities.

He further said that the committee had suggested that in addition to bureaucrats from the relevant cadres of the bureaucracy, intellectuals and learned members of civil society could also be appointed as vice chancellors. He claimed that the opposition had been taken into confidence about the proposed law’s contents.

An MPA of the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan, Sabir Qaimkhani, told media persons that they had vehemently opposed the proposed bill. He claimed that the treasury’s side owing to the sheer majority of its members on the committee had passed the bill. He alleged that the Sindh government was bent upon destroying the academia.

Two members of the standing committee, who are MQM legislators, couldn’t attend its proceedings due to ill health. On Monday, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon had told a press conference at the Social Media Directorate that the process for appointing university vice chancellors had been improved in accordance with the Sindh cabinet’s decision.

Memon said the new approach allows not only teachers but also professors, retired professionals and experts in the relevant field to be considered as candidates for the VC position. Under the existing system, any professor is eligible to be appointed VC, he added.

He said the law enabling the appointment of professors as VCs was also introduced by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). While professors can still be appointed as VCs, the criteria have now been broadened to include more options, he added. He highlighted that Sindh University’s former VCs Allama II Qazi, Mazharul Haq Siddiqui and Nisar Siddiqui, and Mehran University’s ex-VC Muzaffar Shah were bureaucrats.