Sindh govt least bothered as varsities, educational boards running on ad hoc basis

Less than a year is left for the Sindh government’s tenure to end but the policy of running universities and educational boards on an ad hoc basis continues.

During the last four years, the provincial government remained largely apathetic towards higher education. As a result of the government’s negligence, nine universities of Sindh are deprived of permanent vice chancellors (VCs), 17 universities have no directors of finance, five education boards have no permanent chairmen and eight education boards are deprived of permanent controllers and secretaries.

These important appointments have been pending for the past several years and the government still does not seem willing to make permanent appointments to these important positions when there is less than a year left for its term to end.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto Women University, Sukkur, has had three acting vice chancellors since March 6, 2018. In the university built exclusively for women, the third acting VC is a man, Dr Shehzad Naseem, whereas, the search committee had sent the names of three women candidates to the Sindh chief minister six months ago.

On June 22, 2020, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA Sukkur) VC Nisar Siddiqui died of Covid-19. After his demise, Dr Mir Muhammad Shah was appointed as the acting VC. Since then, two years have passed but the varsity has not got a permanent VC.

In Shaheed Allah Bakhsh Soomro University of Art, Design and Heritage, Jamshoro, Dr Bhai Khan Shar was appointed as the acting VC on September 8, 2020. He is currently working on the same position.

Dawood Engineering University VC Dr Faiz Abbasi completed his second term in June 2021. The search committee sent three names to the Sindh CM for approval in June last year but the summary of the names has been lying on the CM’s desk for a year.

Dr Samreen Hussain has been appointed as the acting VC of the Arora University of Art and Architecture Design and Heritage, Sukkur. In Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University of Technology and Skills Development, Khairpur, Dr Noor Ahmed Sheikh from Shah Latif University has been serving as the acting VC since March 7, 2022.

In Liaquat Medical University, Jamshoro, VC Dr Bika Ram completed his first term last year and since then, Dr Ikramuddin Ajan has been working as the acting VC.

Professor Taha Hussain Ali has been working as the acting VC of the Mehran Engineering University since last year. The permanent VC of the Lyari University, Dr Akhtar Baloch was suspended six months ago, after which Dr Amjad Siraj Memon was asked to serve as the acting VC.

The posts of finance director have also been lying vacant for two years in 11 universities. A total of 81 applications for the finance director were received from the 11 universities and the search committee called 57 candidates for interviews in September last year, but then, the boards and universities department suddenly stopped the interview process.

Similarly, five educational boards of Sindh are being run by retired chairmen whose term has ended. In the Sukkur board, Mujtaba Shah, brother of Pakistan Peoples Party leader Khurshid Shah, has been the chairman for the last 11 years. He is 67 years old.

Sindh Board of Technical Education Chairman Dr Masroor Sheikh is retired and has been on the post for eight years. Nawabshah Board chief Dr Farooq Hasan has been the acting chairman for the past two years and is also the VC of a government university.

The term of the 65-year-old chairman of Mirpurkhas Board, Professor Barkat Hydari, was completed one-and-a-half years ago. Now, he has the additional charge of the post of chairman of the Hyderabad Board.

It is interesting to note that the search committee that interviewed the candidates for the secretaries and controllers in the boards could find only two qualified candidates, but the controlling authority did not recruit even those two candidates, Zarina Rashid and Dr Naveed Ahmed Gujjar.

For the educational boards’ chairmen, the search committee selected qualified candidates on merit and recommended five top candidates — Noman Ahsan, Fazlit Mehdi, Qazi Arif Ali, Rafia Bano and Colonel (retd) Alamdar — to be appointed.

Although their names were cleared by three intelligence agencies, they have not been issued appointment letters. Apart from this, the eight education boards of Sindh have been deprived of permanent examiners and secretaries for the last five years, but the government is not interested in making permanent appointments to these posts.

When Boards and Universities Secretary Mureed Rahimon was contacted for the government’s version, he admitted that there had been a delay in these matters. He added that the government would try to make appointments against all such vacant posts by September, and the decision to restore the Lyari University VC would also be taken soon.