Polarisation at Gomal University affecting academic and administrative affairs

PESHAWAR: The deepening polarization at the Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan is adversely affecting the academic and administrative affairs of the second-largest seat of learning in the province.

Serious allegations pertaining to illegal recruitments, corrupt practices, victimization of employees, irregularities in affiliation of colleges and anomalies in the award of degrees have been levelled against the current acting administration of the university.

The university administration has rejected all the allegations as baseless and aimed at maligning the vice-chancellor for vested interests. A deputy registrar of the university gave a detailed response to all the accusations made by certain officials against the university administration.

Some officials of the university told The News that the current acting vice-chancellor has recruited 158 employees in different cadres from scale of 1 to 17 - clerical staff to teaching assistants without having legal authority in the capacity of an officiating vice-chancellor.

They alleged that the vice-chancellor was hand in glove with an influential Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and the recruitments had been made to appease the same leader in return for appointing him as pro-vice-chancellor of the university.

They alleged that the current administration of the university was victimizing the employees who were in the opposition camp of the vice-chancellor and their salaries have been stopped for months.

They went on to allege that the vice-chancellor was using harassment as a tool to target his opponents and recently a senate member of the university namely Asif Awan was removed from office on the same charges.

Some serious allegations were made about the award of fake degrees and granting affiliations to colleges which did not fall under the area jurisdiction of the university. The university administration was accused of extending undue favour to a former director administration of the university.

They also pointed a finger at the appointment of the current acting vice-chancellor as pro-vice-chancellor of the university, who according to them, was on number-7 on the seniority list and extra favour had been extended to him.

A deputy registrar of the university on the directives of the acting vice-chancellor gave a detailed response to all the accusations one by one. Talking to The News by telephone, the university official termed all the allegations as lies.

About the recruitment of 158 employees, he said that no such recruitment was made by the current vice-chancellor. He said that the list being circulated by certain circles had the date of appointment against each employee which is self-explanatory.

The official admitted that only 17 recruitments were made in the department of Allied Health Sciences on the directives of the chancellor of the university and the governor of the province. He said that the same department was going through a severe crisis due to students protesting against the lack of teaching and non-teaching staff.

The positions, he said, were properly advertised and merit-based recruitments were

made against them to fill the vacuum, he said. He brushed aside the allegation of victimization of Gomal University Teacher Association members and other employees of the university for opposing the vice-chancellor.

The official said that no such action whatsoever has been taken against any employee of the university. “No inquiry could be launched. No letter of explanation could be issued or any action taken against any employee of the university. Everything is on the record and is crystal clear,” he insisted

Regarding the stopping of salaries of certain employees, the official claimed that after the forced leave of the former vice-chancellor, three-month salaries of all the employees were pending. The current administration has cleared two of the pending salaries and the remaining one would be cleared soon, he added. “Let me tell you that my own salary for one-and-a-half-months is still pending,” he said.

About the allegation of fake degrees, he said that the allegation was totally baseless. not a single such degree could be proved to have been issued by the present administration of the university.

“Yes, there was a case of 4500 fake BA degrees in the university years ago. but those degrees had been cleared by the former administration in a syndicate meeting in 2018. Interestingly, the degrees were cleared as mentioned on serial no 8 of the minutes of the syndicate meeting, while serial no 10 of the same document stated that responsibility would be fixed against those who have tampered with the record on the basis of which the degrees were issued,” he stated.

The official rejected the allegations of affiliations to colleges beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the university as baseless. He said that affiliation to some 20 colleges had been given by the former administration of the university. The current administration only tightened the rules for these colleges that their exams would be conducted by the university not internally by the colleges, he maintained.