Meritorious professor’s status given to 5 UET academicians

PESHAWAR: Five professors - three incumbent and two retired - of the University of Engineering and Technology finally got the status of meritorious professors in BPS-22 as the University’s Senate accorded approval to the case on Wednesday.

The professors included the serving vice-chancellor Dr Iftikhar Hussain, pro-vice-chancellor Dr Qaiser Ali, chairman, Department of Agriculture Engineering, Dr Taj Ali Khan, a former pro-vice-chancellor, Dr Noor Mohammad, and former chairman, Department of Civil Engineering, Dr Akhtar Naeem Khan.

The positions had been created in 2017 and were formally announced in December that year. The senior-most professors were asked to submit their credentials for the positions by January 2017.

However, the process was delayed. On July 9, 2019 a special syndicate meeting of the university was convened for the purpose but that could not be held owing to short of quorum as a majority of the members of the august forum were abroad.

Meanwhile, two of the professors - Dr Noor Mohammad and Dr Akhtar Naeem — got retired from their service in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Dr Noor Mohammad, however, moved court before his retirement and the court decided in his favour saying he should be given the status with effect from July 9, 2019, the date of the special syndicate.

Thus, the two professors would get benefits of the meritorious professors with retrospective effect. Some reports suggested that the vice-chancellor and pro-vice-chancellor headed the special selection board and syndicate, while they themselves were the candidates.

However, pro-vice-chancellor Dr Qaiser Ali told The News that they had left the forum by the time the points pertaining to them were taken up in the selection board and syndicate meetings. “This is a common process. It is not something extraordinary,” he said.