Alleged anomalies in UoH: Governor’s secretariat seeks acting VC comments

HARIPUR: The Governor’s secretariat KP, has asked the secretary of KP Higher Education Department (HED) to obtain and send the comments from the acting pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Haripur (UoH) who is currently serving as vice-chancellor and facing complaints of irregularities, to Governor’s Secretariat within a fortnight, according to a letter issued to the secretary on May 13. According to the letter (copy available with this correspondent), issued to the secretary of HED from the office of section officer, Governor’s Secretariat Asif Iqbal, vide No SO-I/7-1/GS/20/6698-6700 dated 13.5.2022, the sender referred the complaint from the president of the Staff Welfare Association, UoH, and asked the secretary HED to obtain detailed and self-contained views/comments from the pro-vice-chancellor Dr Ayub Khan who was serving as acting vice-chancellor and submit it to his office (Governor’s Secretariat) with solid recommendations within a fortnight.

It merits a mention here that the president of the HoU staff association had through a five pages complaint sent to the KP governor, and secretary, HED KP, had accused the acting VC Dr Ayub of committing irregularities and termed his decisions violations.

The president of the association had accused the acting VC of advertising several posts in violation of rules without any prerequisite need assessment.

Earlier, the Governor’s Secretariat had written to the UoH Registrar through a letter No SO-I/7-1GS/20/6584-88 dated 27.04.2022 had asked him to appear with a complete record on May 12. The meeting was scheduled at 10.00 am at Governor’s House Peshawar to discuss irregularities in the University of Haripur during the period of Acting VC Dr Ayub Khan.

But the registrar failed to attend the meeting for unknown reasons and a former contract employee, recently appointed deputy registrar Establishment by acting VC, was sent to represent the registrar’s office but the Governor’s Secretariat, reportedly, refused to listen to him.

According to sources, the search committee of the KP government has almost finalized the selection process after conducting interviews of candidates for the six public sector universities of the KP including Haripur and the appointment of a new permanent VC was expected within the next few days. Acting VC Prof Dr Ayub was set to retire on June 23 this year after completion of his service tenure.