Lady teacher’s deputation from HU to UoP triggers controversy

PESHAWAR: Allowing a lady teacher on deputation to the University of Peshawar from Hazara University in violation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities’ Act and despite the ban by the Higher Education Department has triggered controversy.

The decision, according to the university’s spokesman, has been taken on the directives of Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The notification issued to this effect says: “In pursuance of the directives of the chancellor, the vice-chancellor in the exercise of the power conferred upon him under the section 11(3) of the universities act is pleased to approve the deputation of Sumaira Sahar, a lecturer of mathematics, department of mathematics and statistics, Hazara University, to the department of mathematics, the University of Peshawar in her own pay and scale for an initial period of one year with effect from the date of joining duty. The terms and conditions of the deputation will be settled later.”

The section 11 (3) of the act, however, does not give any such power to the vice-chancellor. The act is clear about the emergency powers of the vice-chancellor. It says: “The vice-chancellor may in an emergency that in his opinion require immediate action not in the competence of the vice-chancellor take such action as he may deem appropriate and shall report the action so taken to the syndicate in its next immediate meeting for permanent decision: Provided that the action taken by the vice-chancellor in an emergency shall not include – (i) framing of Statutes, Regulations, Rules or any other legislative act; (ii) making any kind of appointments; (iii) taking actions which required out of budget implications; (iv) imposing any penalty against employees in BPS-17 and above; and (v) exercising powers of Senate.”

The law rather prevents the vice-chancellor from taking steps that are not urgent. For the deputation of the lady teacher, there was no such emergency except the pressure from the Governor House. The style and tone of a letter from the Governor’s Secretariat to the university administration showed Governor Shah Farman’s interest in the deputation case. The letter, dated March 3, 2020, reads: “It is highly regretted that the directives issued by the governor/chancellor have not yet been implemented after a lapse of 6 months. In addition, such a directive does not need any approval of any forum after approval of the chancellor. However, if the same was necessary, the same should have been considered much earlier by the syndicate. Foregoing above the directives of the chancellor may be implemented without any further delay under intimation to the governor’s secretariat.”

After this letter, the university was left with no other choice but to allow the deputation despite the violation of law and the ban on deputations in public sector universities, sources told The News. According to a senior official, there is no policy of deputation in the University of Peshawar at all. In the past even if deputations were made in the university on a need basis, these had been duly approved by the university’s syndicate, he said. The practice was abandoned by the university after the promulgation of the Universities Act.

In order to ensure full implementation of the act with regard to deputation and prevent its violation, the Higher Education Department imposed a strict ban on it through a formal notification issued in January 2019. Even in the past if any department felt the urgent need of some specialized person to be deputed from another university, it would have to make a formal request to the university administration.

The request would then be placed before the syndicate. The syndicate would authorize the university administration to make a formal request from the other institution for the purpose. In this particular case, the mathematics department has made no such request. Chairman of the department, Imran Aziz, when reached for comments, told The News that they had not made any request for the deputation of the teacher concerned. He said they were not in need of more teachers in the department. However, he added that they were unable to meet requests for providing teachers to other departments for taking extra classes.

According to the university website, currently, 14 teaching faculty is employed in the mathematics department. Among them, one is associate professor, nine are assistant professors, and four lecturers. Thirteen among them are PhDs. The chancellor forced the university administration to approve the deputation on the basis of “wedlock policy”. Wedlock policy is meant for other departments of the provincial government. It has nothing to do with the universities. The University of Peshawar has been suffering from the worst financial crisis. In this situation, such actions on the part of the university administration, which has already been banned from taking major decisions by the same governor, would further burden the institution.

Spokesman for the university, Ali Imran, when contacted, told The News that “the deputation has been allowed as directed by the chancellor to relax the ban for the same.” This is the exact version of the university on the issue, he added. Meanwhile, Peshawar University Teachers Association in its general body meeting held on Thursday with President Dr Fazle Nasir in the chair condemned the decision as a violation of the law and urged the university administration to withdraw it forthwith.