Fuuast without permanent VC for over two years as search committee fails to find suitable candidate

It has been over two years the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) has been functioning without a permanent vice chancellor (VC), which has caused severe administrative and financial crisis severely disrupting the academic and research activities.

It was October 2019 when the last permanent VC of the varsity, Dr Syed Altaf Hussain, had to leave his post following a Supreme Court order. Since then, the varsity has been awaiting a permanent chief.

On the instructions of the Fuuast senate, the decision-making body of the varsity, and the varsity’s chancellor President Arif Alvi, an advertisement was published in newspapers in 2020 for hiring a permanent VC. To meet the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s (HEC) requirement, it was stated in the advertisement that a candidate must have published at least 15 research papers in HEC-approved research journals.

To shortlist the candidates, a seven-member search committee was formed by the senate that was headed by Zohair Ashir. The body, however, failed to verify the research papers of the candidates who had applied for the post. Resultantly, when names of the top five shortlisted candidates were presented to the senate, some Fuuast senators pointed out that the selection process had not been done as per the senate’s directions.

The search committee generated controversy because a number of Fuuast teachers claimed that the head of the search committee, Ashir, had a BA degree due to which he was not competent to scrutinise suitable candidates for the position of the VC. Likewise, other members of the committee, including Wajid Jawad, president of the Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu, and Sadiqa Salahuddin, head of a private educational institution, did not pursue education beyond the master's level, due to which they were unable to verify research work, qualification and experience of the candidates. Only three members of the committee were PhDs.

After the committee had scrutinised the candidates, it summoned the shortlisted candidates for interviews. Those candidates also included two Fuuast professors who were the heads of their respective departments but the committee rejected them in the interview process.

The committee also did not approve senior professors of other varsities who had applied for the position.

On the contrary, the committee shortlisted an assistant professor of Fuuast and another assistant professor of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) after their interviews. Claiming that the search committee was not competent enough to shortlist the candidates for the VC, the two Fuuast professors who had been rejected in the interviews approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the committee, following which the court declared that the search committee had outsourced its work and therefore its proceedings until then were void.

The SHC further directed the search committee to start the search process afresh and complete it within the stipulated time.

After the SHC order, one of the two petitioners withdrew his candidature, following which the search committee again summoned the other petitioner, Prof Dr Muhammad Zahid, the head of the faculty of science, for an interview. He was again not shortlisted.

After the interviews, a list of five shortlisted names was presented to the Fuuast senate where three names were selected from those five and sent to Chancellor President Alvi so that he could nominate one of those three candidates as the permanent Fuuast VC.

The chancellor issued a letter on September 16, 2021, to appoint Dr Shahid Qureshi from the IBA as the VC. Dr Qureshi, however, did not accept the post without giving any reason.

Similarly, another of the three final candidates was based in Canada and he also reportedly refused to accept the position because of low salary.

According to sources, the third candidate, Prof Dr Zafarullah Qureshi, did not meet some HEC requirements and in case he was appointed, there was a possibility of a court ruling against him for not fulfilling the condition given in the advertisement.

Earlier, Dr Hussain was removed from the post of the VC on an apex court order as he did not meet all the qualifications mentioned in the advertisement.

It is evident that the search committee failed to perform its task. Even after the process was restarted afresh on judicial orders, Fuuast could not get a permanent VC.

Fuuast teachers are now again appealing to President Alvi to initiate the process for the appointment of a permanent VC by notifying a fresh and competent search committee.