University of Malakand yet to get full-time VC

PESHAWAR: The decisions taken by the University of Malakand Senate in its meeting held in September 2021 could not be implemented so far for the obvious reasons of lack of a full-time head of the institution and keeping the complete report secret.

The 71-page inquiry report with separate three volumes of annexures consisting of 1,185 pages for the perusal of the governor, chancellor, University of Malakand, could be made public only recently.

The Senate in its meeting held on September 20, 2021 with Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Higher Education, Kamran Bangash, had taken the decisions on the basis of recommendations of the inquiry committee.

The meeting had shown displeasure over the performance of the then vice-chancellor Dr Gul Zaman, but had allowed him to continue heading the institution till the completion of his tenure in October last year.

The University of Malakand witnessed serious upheaval during the final year of the tenure – 2020-21 – of the former vice-chancellor. The university employees had observed a long strike.

Some70 faculty members of the university had submitted a complaint to the Higher Education Department against the former Vice-chancellor, Dr Gul Zaman,in March 2021.

The then governor, the chancellor had constituted an inquiry to probe the allegations in April 2021, headed by the former special secretary of the Higher Education Department. A total of 40 allegations had been levelled against the former vice-chancellor.

The committee after a thorough probe found 21 charges to be true, while 11 charges could not be proved. It had suggested that further inquiry was required by technical experts into four charges, one allegation needed further investigation, two were found partially true and one under investigation by the Governor’s Inspection Team.

According to the report (copy available with The News), appointments, and promotion of Dr Shafiqur Rahman, Dr Alamzeb and Dr Ikrah Ilahi were proved to be illegal. But, the committee admitted that documents particularly in cases of appointments were not provided to them by the university.

Therefore, the list of 144 appointments, and promotions “would just provide an outline for a detailed probe into the genuineness, legality of the appointments, if desired,” the report stated.

Forty-two contract appointments and eight appointments on “walk-in-interview” carried out during the tenure of Dr Gul Zaman had been termed illegal. In many of the 144 appointments, charges of victimization, favouritism, nepotism and irregularities in appointments had been proven according to the inquiry committee.

In some cases, appointments had been made in excess of the advertised positions. It appeared that the committee had mostly relied on the evidence provided by faculty to prove charges against Dr Gul Zaman.

The faculty could not present proof to support tampering with draft statutes by the vice-chancellor Dr Gul Zaman and therefore the charge could not be proved against Dr Gul Zaman.

However, in another letter to the Governor Inspection Team, Dr Gul Zaman admitted that he had made 67 changes to the draft statutes before its placement on the agenda of the 38th Syndicate meeting. The Senate had awarded a minor penalty of “censure” to Dr Gul Zaman.

The committee had recommended that the Senate had decided to constitute a committee of experts to investigate irregularities in civil works in the university. However, no such investigation or proceedings could be initiated. The committee had found that the University Public School was a poorly managed institution which operated without proper legal cover.

There was no legal procedure for appointments causing irregular appointments being made. Even its incumbent principal was appointed through a walk-in-interview. The university is functioning under caretaker setup since the completion of the tenure of Dr Gul Zaman in October 2021. The process for appointment of a new full-time vice-chancellor of the university has already been initiated.