At last, second permanent SZABMU VC in sight

Islamabad : With President Dr Arif Alvi set to declare his pick from among three nominees, the long-awaited appointment of the second permanent vice-chancellor to the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University is in sight.

Unlike the first permanent VC, Lahore-based Professor Javed Akram, the contenders recommended by the search committee after interviewing five shortlisted aspirants are locals.

Safe Blood Transfusion Programme Project Director and SZABMU Professor of Pathology Dr Hasan Abbas Zaheer and Federal Medical and Dental College principal and Professor of Surgery Dr Tanwir Khaliq are from Islamabad, while Rawalpindi Medical University Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Gastroenterology Dr Muhammad Umar lives in Rawalpindi.

Though the top slot of the first and only public sector medical university in the capital fell vacant in January 2018 after Prof Javed quit on completing the four-year stint, lacunas in legislation delayed the formation of the VC search committee. Since the university had no pro-VC, a deputy to the VC, the university saw ad hocism at the top with the president tasking one senior PIMS officer after another with temporarily holding the VC’s office.

The current acting head of the university, Dr Iqbal Memon, got the post in January this year around three months after the retirement of Dr Abid Farooqi, who had held the office on an ad hoc basis since Prof Javed left. The national health services and coordination ministry set the ball rolling for the filling of the position on a permanent basis at the end of last year only after the legal issues about the SZABMU it oversees.

It advertised the post, received 32 applications and sent the academic degrees, professional certificates and other documents of applicants to the HEC for verification before calling six of them for interview by the search committee headed by human rights minister Dr Shireen Mazari and consisting of Quaid-i-Azam University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ali, Higher Education Commission executive director Dr Tariq Banuri, Benazir Income Support Programme chairperson Dr Sania Nishtar and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre Chief Executive Officer Dr Faisal Sultan.

The committee interviewed them all earlier this month and recommended Prof Dr Hasan Abbas Zaheer, Prof Dr Tanwir Khaliq and Prof Dr Muhammad Umar for the VC’s post.

There followed the dispatch of the three names by the Cabinet Division to the president, the university’s chancellor, to make a choice for the formal notification of the one filling Prof Javed’s shoes for a four years term in office. However, the president has yet to name his pick.

Many at the SZABMU insist the university, which was established in March 2013, would formally get the second permanent VC by the end of this month or early next month.

They say though all three contenders are equally strong, Prof Dr Tanwir Khaliq and Prof Dr Hasan Zaheer are the front-runners for being associated with the university and attached Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences unlike Rawalpindi-based Prof Dr Muhammad Umar.