ISLAMABAD: At least seven out of nine faculties and four core institutes in the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) are being run on ad-hoc basis due to favouritism and murder of appointments on merit. A well-placed source in the university informed The News that seven out of nine faculties of the university are being run on ad-hoc basis by the acting heads. Four important departments of the university including Dawa Academy, Sharia Academy, Islamic Research Institute and Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue are also being run by the acting heads. Dawa Academy, which is an important institute of the university, doesn’t have a regular head and president of the university is keeping the charge of this institute with him. Similarly, Sharia Academy is being run on ad-hoc basis. Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue is being headed by a 75-year-old on contract basis whereas Islamic Research Institute’s charge has been given to a person who is not even a full professor on ad-hoc basis. Similarly, female campus of the university, which is the largest and important organ of the university, is being run by an acting head. These seven faculties then have dozens of departments which also don’t have full professors and are being run by acting heads resulting in decline in the number of foreign students as well as the standard of education. When contacted, IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai said it is true that he is facing difficulties in some faculties because of not having heads and professors. But the reason behind this is unavailability of eligible people in the field, he added. The source further said performance of the university is going down for last few years. This decadent trend has been further accelerated since the present president has assumed charge of the office. The source further informed that because of not having regular deans and directors in seven out of nine faculties, the university affairs have been left at the mercy of junior and blue-eyed people of the president of the university. “The number of foreign students and faculty has considerably decreased. This used to be a great pride of this institution in the past. There is no initiative to secure qualified faculty to enhance teaching and research standards,” commented the source. The source further said that the attitude of the top management of the university with the faculty is derogatory. He said recently, research scholars of the institute made a joint written protest in this regard to President Dr Ahmad Al-Draiweesh. However the attitude of the president was highly disrespectful to the 40 faculty members who went to his office on November 20, 2014 to lodge their protest over this mockery of merit. The president of the university, instead of listening to their complaint, insulted the scholars. Justice Dr Muhammad al-Ghazali, a judge in the Supreme Court, who is the senior most professor of IIUI and had been associated with the Islamic Research Institute for three decades, has resigned in protest over this open violation of merit in appointing head of the IRI, the source informed. Dr Masoom said he himself has appointed Dr Ziaur Rehman as head of IRI and he personally believes that there is no other person who could match the qualification and merit for this post other than Dr Zia. He said he is looking for the suitable person as the standard for higher degree classes are not up to the mark because of not having supervisors for PhD. He said neither the university management follows the policy of favouritism nor anybody has been appointed ignoring the merit. He said Dr Ziaul Haq has been appointed purely on merit. “Recently, I have advertised 125 posts for the professors but I am sure it would be hard to find even 25 eligible people for these posts as there is a shortage of competent people in the relevant field,” he commented. To a question about decline in the number of foreign students, he said how could foreigners come to Pakistan keeping the current law and order situation in view and hopefully once the law and order situation is improved the foreign students once again would come to Pakistan as the university offers best quality education. About the president’s rude attitude, he said this is nothing but a speculation about the president that he treats the faculty members very harshly. “The fact is he only knows Arabic and can’t speak English and Urdu and because of not comprehending him the people think the president is rude,” he explained.
