Peshawar - Authorities have appointed the project director of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (Awkum)’s Timergara campus in violation of the relevant rules, The Nation has learnt.
Initially, Awkum administration had suggested to the Higher Education Department (HED) three names of senior academicians for appointment as project director of the Timergara campus, as it is being upgraded into a full-fledged university.
However, instead of selecting one from the suggested names, the HED issued a notification on November 9, 2021, appointing Dr Zahoor Jan of Islamia College University as project director of the Timergara campus.
It merits a mention here that Dr Zahoor Jan is associate professor and also serves at another project as well.
Normally a university gives three names to the HED for the appointment and the HED then selects one among those persons to head a university as project director.
In this case, the university had nominated three names: Dr Saeed Islam, dean Awkum; Dr Minhaj Ud Din, assistant professor of economics and coordinator Timergara campus; and Dr Badshah Islam, assistant professor at Department of Horticulture.
However, the HED altogether ignored the three names and appointed Dr Zahoor Jan as the project director to head a new varsity, while ignoring Dr Saeed Islam, who is the senior most among the candidates.
Another rule violated is that a candidate cannot be appointed from outside a university as project director if its cost is less than Rs3 billion while the Timergara campus project is worth Rs1 billion.
Also, the rules do not allow Dr Zahoor Jan to be appointed as Timergara campus project director as he is already heading a PSDP project.
When contacted, Secretary Higher Education KP Daud Khan said that proper procedure had been adopted in the appointment. He said that the panel is processed by the department and not by university.
“They may forward names. But it’s the prerogative of the HED to include names in the panel. Proper interview was held by the committee headed by ACS and having representation from finance, establishment and HED,” he claimed.
But when asked that ACS did not attend the said meeting, he said: “Usually when ACS is not available, the meeting is chaired by secretary P&D and minutes are approved by ACS.”