The vice chancellor and some other officials of a nascent public sector university in
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have been summoned by the Ehtesab Bureau to record
their statements on alleged irregularities and favoritism in appointments and
other administrative matters, it has been learnt.
Dr Muhammad Haleem
Khan, Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Women University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (WUAJK), Bagh, and Registrar
Dr Mohammad Riaz had been asked to appear before the bureau’s director (investigations)
Sardar Ilyas Khan in Muzaffarabad respectively on May 16 and 17, while members
of the varsity’s scrutiny/selection committee as well as a complainant would appear on
May 18, according to the relevant sources.
The WUAJK was
established by an Act of the AJK Assembly in 2014, and the then secretary
higher education Dr Saima Shahjehan was appointed its VC as a stopgap
arrangement.
Dr Haleem was
appointed as her successor on May 2, 2014 for a three-year term.
According to a comprehensive complaint filed in
October last year by Shahzad Khan, a civil society activist from Bagh, the
WUAJK officials had made a “mockery” of the rules as well as judgments
of the AJK Supreme Court in making appointments against as many as 83 gazetted
posts.
The advertisement
for permanent appointment against these B-16 and B-17 posts in 32 different
departments was published in January 2015, in response to which some 500
candidates had submitted applications.
The WUAJK hired
National Testing System (NTS) for recruitment, which conducted written exam in
September 2015 while interviews were held after two months.
The record
submitted by the complainant, almost all of which was also obtained by this scribe, and an initial inquiry into it revealed
that the varsity had “thrown dust into the eyes of the candidates” by
recruiting the already serving employees “in a questionable manner.”
As the WUAJK had
adopted the rules, regulations, policies and statues of the University of AJK,
Muzaffarabad, to run its affairs, it was required to invite the top five successful
candidates in written exam for interviews.
However, following
the written exam results, the WUAJK invited all candidates for interviews
allegedly to ensure that the favorites, most of them already serving employees,
were not left out.
Candidates
were shocked to see that almost all of the permanent appointees were those who had
failed to make it to the top five in the written exam, “in what amounted to
frustrating rather mocking the perceived purpose of involving NTS in recruitment
process.”
In one of the
several such examples, a candidate who was beyond 40th position in written exam
was also declared successful.
Similarly, a
candidate with one 3rd division also got permanent appointment, even
though his competitors included those who had secured first divisions
throughout their academic career.
Under the
Higher Education Commission (HEC) rules, a person with single third division in
educational career cannot be hired as faculty member.
However, in
order to accommodate favorites, the WUAJK administration misled the HEC to obtain
relaxation of this rule, by citing “non-availability” of faculty in the “hard
area.”
Even a
candidate, who had secured only 43 marks below the passing criteria of WUAJK,
was gifted with appointment against the post of programmer.
The
complainant had cited several other cases of favoritism and irregularities.
For example,
an ex-serviceman was appointed as chief security officer on June 25, 2014, but
he was assigned the task of making purchases for the varsity on June 10, two
weeks before his appointment.
Sources said
that initial investigation into the complaint was conducted by director (complaints)
Amjad Minhas and on his report the case was transferred to director (investigations)
Sardar Ilyas Khan by Ehtesab Bureau Chairman Raja Ghazanfar Ali.
Sources also claimed
that WUAJK administration had planned to stall bureau’s proceedings on this
case but had to cut a sorry figure after AJK President Sardar Masood Khan, who
happens to be the chancellor of all public sector varsities, did not agree, and
instead advised them to defend themselves before the bureau if they were not
guilty.
Interestingly,
in a bizarre move, Dr Haleem had obtained a 2-year extension on March 9, 2016 from the
then President (and chancellor) Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan, more than 14 months before the
expiry of his 3-year term.
Tariq Naqash
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