Open Letter to Governor of Punjab
To,
The Honorable Chancellor/Governor of Punjab, University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore.
Subject: ILLEGAL APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS AND VIOLATION OF UET ACT AND STATUTES
It is pointed out that according to schedule of first statutes appended in university Act:
Dean
(2) The Dean of each Faculty shall be appointed by the Chancellor from amongst the three senior most professors in the Faculty for a period of three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment;
Provided that if no professor is available in a Faculty, professor from some other Faculty may act as a Dean till a professor of the Faculty itself is appointed.
Teaching Departments and Chairmen
3. (1) There shall be teaching Department for each subject or group of subjects, as may be prescribed by Regulations, and each teaching Department shall be headed by a Chairman.
(2) The Chairman of a Teaching Department and the Director of an Institute shall be appointed by the Syndicate on the recommendation of the Vice-Chancellor from amongst the three senior most professors of the department for a period of three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment. Provided that in a department where there are less than three professors the appointment shall be made from amongst the three senior most Professors and Associate Professors of the department; provided further that in a Department in which there is no Professor or Associate Professor, no such appointment shall be made and the department shall be looked after by the Dean of the Faculty with the assistance of the senior most teacher of the department.
All the key appointments in the university, such Dean of faculty and chairman of the department or director of the centres, are to be made from among the three senior most professors for a term of three years and if decision is made against a senior most person, then there must be a cogent reason, as per the orders of superior courts of Pakistan order (Writ Petition No.34743 of 2019, Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan Versus Government of the Punjab & others). Dr. Sarwar had violated the UET Act 1974 and decisions of Honorable Courts of Pakistan for making all these appointments. Dr. Sarwar also appointed the Dean of faculty at its own by sending the names of the professors of his choice in the absence of seniority list. He has no legal or moral authority and was not competent authority. Further, junior persons were appointed as Chairmen of the Department without assigning any cogent reasons. An overview of such appointments is as under:
1. Prof. Dr. Shakir Mehmood, was appointed as Chairman City and regional planning department by neglecting the senior professors, Prof. Dr. Obaidullah Nadeem, Prof. Dr. Ijaz Ahmed. It is pertinent to mention that Dr. Shakir is at serial number four (04) in the departmental seniority, and he is not eligible as per University Act to be appointed as Chairman of the Department.
2. An Associate Prof. of BPS 20, Dr. Shahab Saqib was appointed as Chairman of Mining Engineering Department by ignoring the senior most Professor of the Department, Prof. Dr. Zulfiqar Ali. It may also be noted that Dr. Sahab Saqib did his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Zulfiqar Ali.
3. Almost ten-year junior Prof. Dr. Muhammad Usman Ghani Khan was appointed as Chairman, Department of Computer Science, ignoring Prof. Dr. Shazia Arshad, who is much senior than the person appointed.
4. Similarly, more than ten-year Junior Prof. Dr. Amir Akhlaq was appointed as Chairman, Institute of Environment Engineering and Research, ignoring Prof. Dr. Sajjad. H. Shiekh, who is way Senior.
5. An Associate Prof. of BPS 20, Dr. Ali Hussain Kazim was appointed as Chairman automotive centre by ignoring seven (07) Professor of BPS 21 in the Department.
6. An Associate Prof. of BPS 20, Dr. Ehsan ul Haq was appointed as Director Foundry Service Centre by ignoring Prof. Dr. Muhammad Asif Rafiq of BPS 21.
Similarly, the Dr. Mansoor sarwar gave the lookafter Charge of Dean of the Faculty to some other Deans on his own sweet will, which is illegal and beyond his authority. It is pertinent to mention that as per UET Act, the Dean of other faculty cannot take the charge of lookafter duties, as the charge can only be given to the person who is working in that specific faculty as Professor.
UET has four allied campuses and college i.e UET KSK, Faisalabad and Narowal campus and RCET Gujranwala. The Statutes for the appointment of Campus Coordinator and Principal of the College are available duly notified by Higher Education Department, Government of Punjab vide notification No.SO(Univ.)2-2/2010 dated 18th September, 2014. The mode and eligibility for appointment of Campus Coordinator and Principal as mentioned in section 6 of these Statutes is as under:
(1) The campus coordinator and principal shall be appointed by the Syndicate from amongst applicants on the recommendations of Selection Board.
(2) The campus coordinator and principal shall be regular Professor of engineering discipline preferably of the related engineering discipline having at least four year’s service in the cadre.
Dr. Sarwar, Ex. VC UET, again ignored the statutes and Law and made illegal and out of turn appointments on temporary basis. Neither the applications for these posts were advertised on national media, nor the selection board was conducted. He made all these illegal adhoc appointments on his own sweet will, and violated the rule of law.
1. Dr. Tanveer Iqbal was appointed as campus coordinator (CC) by ignoring the senior Professors in the campus. Dr. Tanveer was associate Professor at that time and was not eligible to become CC as per statutes. Dr. Tanveer also holds the charge of Chairman Chemical Engineering Department KSK campus. It is very important to mention that the Dr. Tanveer is one of the blued eyes of Dr. Sarwar along with his wife Dr. Saima. Dr. Tanveer’s wife, Dr. Saima got transferred from KSK Campus to Main Campus and was given the charge of Chairperson Chemical Engineering Department. Later, she was also appointed as Professor, and spent most of her time in the Vice Chancellors office. It is significant to mention that Dr. Saima was transferred from UET KSK campus to UET main in the absence of transfer policy and no was ever transferred from any campus to UET main before her transfer. There was no rule/law or even precedence of transfer existed before the transfer of Dr. Saima from, as campus-to-campus transfer was not allowed. Before Dr. Saima’s transfer, Prof. Dr. Tauseef Aized requested for transfer, but he was not allowed and only attachment was allowed. Even in that case the decision was made by the Syndicate (appointing authority), whereas in case of Dr. Saima, Dr. Sarwar took the decision as the Vice Chancellor to give benefit to his blue eyed, violating the law.
2. Dr. Muhammad Shahbaz, Professor Computer Science UET main Campus was appointed as CC Narowal Campus without following the procedure of appointment. This case is also quite similar to Dr. Tanveer case.
3. The Charge of Principal RCET was given to an Associate Professor. The CC Faisalabad Campus was also appointed in similar manner.
It is pertinent to mention that concept of ad hoc appointments is against the posts in public sector. Ad hoc appointment is a stopgap arrangement which is not the permanent character of the civil service, especially in the cases where eligible persons are already available as are the cases mentioned above. Practices like appointment of ad hoc / temporary appointment of Principal/CC must be seriously discouraged and stopped in the interest of transparency, certainty and predictability, which are hallmarks of a system of good governance. The policy of adhocism is and should be discouraged at all levels and there are number of judgements of superior courts of Pakistan against ad hoc appointments. The superior Courts also noted with concern that the device of officiating promotion, ad hoc promotion/appointment or temporary appointment etc. is used by Government Departments to keep civil servants under their influence by hanging the proverbial sword of Damocles over their heads. Therefore, these appointments have no sanctity in the eyes of law.
Dr. Sarwar Ex. VC did not bother about the respective service statutes / law to about the seniority, neither the orders of either superior judiciary/Government of Punjab rules nor the direction of Honorable Chancellor. It is pertinent to mention that Punjab University and UET Lahore have almost similar acts (The University of Punjab Act, 1973 and UET Act,1974) and both have adopted the same TTS Statutes. Punjab University is regularly publishing the seniority list as per the seniority rule in Statutes for both BPS and TTS faculty, whereas, to give undue benefit to his cronies and make such illegal appointments, Dr Sarwar did not allow the relevant office to notify the seniority list as per the seniority rule available in the Statutes, during his four (04) year tenure.
As per the UET Act 1974, Clause “3 *(2) The Chairman of a Teaching Department and the Director of an Institute shall be appointed by the Syndicate on the recommendation of the Vice-Chancellor from amongst the three senior most professors of the department for a period of three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment.”
There are two important things in this clause.
a) appointment will be made by the Syndicate, and
b) Vice chancellor can only recommend.
It is very interesting to note that Dr. Sarwar illegally got and used both the powers of recommending and appointing the Chairman of teaching department/Director, which is not only illegal, violation of Clause 3(2) of UET Act, 1974 but is unacceptable morally.
It is pertinent to mention that Dr. Sarwar not only made the appointments of Chairmen, Directors and Campus Coordinators in the absence of seniority list but also deceived Higher Education Department and Honorable Governor of Punjab / Chancellor UET Lahore by sending names of three professors for appointment of Dean of faculty based on his sweet will, which is again violation of UET Act, 1974.
VC UET LAHORE, Dr. Sarwar flaunts the UET Act 1974 to give favors to his cronies. He has acted in a prejudiced manner to give unlawful favor to his cronies by making them seniors illegally and appointed at key positions. The beneficiary of these unlawful appointments is
a) Prof. Dr. Naveed Ramzan Dean Faculty of Chemical Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (convenor of more than 90 % of the committees and member of almost all the committees in UET),
b) Prof. Dr. Saima Tanveer Chairperson Chemical Engineering, member of more than 50 % of the committees of UET Lahore.
It is pertinent to mention that both Dr. Naveed and Dr. Saima spent most of their time in VC office and no one was allowed to meet VC during that time. This can be confirmed from the recording of the cameras.
c) Prof. Dr. Shakir Mehmood Chairman City and regional planning department, who in the seniority list is at number four (04), but still not only became the Chairman, but his name was sent for the appointment of Dean, which is violation of clause 2(2) of UET Act.
The story does not end here,
d) Dr. Sarwar appointed Dr. Azeem Raza as Director ORIC. The main responsibility of this office is to promote research and commercialization. The most interesting fact is Dr. Azeem Raza was an Assistant Professor at that time and was unable to get promotion for not having the required number of research publications. Dr. Sarwar ignored number of senior professors, who have exceptional research profile.
e) Dr. Sarwar appointed an Associate Professor; Dr. Farhan as Director QEC while ignoring number of senior professors having exceptional experience on Quality.
According to Model Tenure Track Statutes duly adopted by the UET Lahore states that:
Once a University/Degree Awarding Institution has adopted the Tenure Track System of appointment no further appointment of PhD degree holders may be made as Assistant Professors under the old (BPS) system. Such faculty members must be recruited under the Tenure Track scheme.
Dr Sarwar again ignored these Statutes and appointed two assistant professor in the computer science Department at KSK Campus. This is personal favoritism of Dr. Sarwar and one of them is female.
It may further noted that the appointing authority for the appointment of Treasurer UET Lahore is worthy Chancellor. The Honorable Chancellor appointed Mr. Hassan Munir as Treasurer UET Lahore. Mr. Hassan resigned in June 2020 and after that Mr. Imran Babar, Deputy Registrar, is looking after the duties of Treasurer. The Higher Education Department vide letter No. SO(UNIV.)39-4/2018 dated 20th July 2022 conveyed the direction of Honorable Chancellor to all Vice Chancellor of Public Sector Universities as under:
1) Process for hiring of Treasurer, Controller of Examinations and Registrar against all vacant posts in various universities be initiated immediately and completed as per law/statutes and policy within six months positively. In case of failure to implement these directions, administrative secretary and vice chancellor will be held responsible.
2) Additional charge against the posts of Treasurer, Controllers of Examinations and Registrars shall initially be assigned for period of three months. However, in order to curb unwarranted prevalent practice of assigning additional charge of these posts perpetually to one incumbent, maximum period of additional charge to one person/officer should not be more than six months in one calendar year.
3) After period of completion of six months of additional charge against the above quoted posts by one incumbent, administrative department is directed to furnish fresh panel of officers of assigning additional charge, by indicating the reasons for not hiring the person against these slots through competitive process.
Dr. Mansoor Sarwar did not paid any heed to direction of Honorable Chancellor and he neither initiated the recruitment process in the six months times nor submitted the panel of officers to the competent authority. Even after the completion of six months, he kept Mr. Imran Babar on the additional charge of treasure illegally and against the directions of Honorable Chancellor. Mr. Imran Babar has been looking after the duties of Treasurer for more than three years now. Dr. Sarwar should be held responsible for this illegal act. Mr. Babar has a graduation degree whereas, other officer of similar rank have higher qualification and experience and are deprived from the post for unknown reasons. An inquiry is requested to be initiated on the grounds that what are the motives of Dr. Sarwar to continue offices for additional charge for such a long time.
In addition to the above violation of UET Act, statutes, Regulations and Rules, Dr. Sarwar conducted a series of selection boards and meetings of Syndicate during the last two months of his tenure. He had made hundreds of appointments and gave promotions to his blue-eyed faculty and staff. The last two Syndicate meetings were held with a difference of 5 days only. There is no such precedence in the hundred (100) years history of UET. No one except Dr. Sarwar knows such an urgency as the notice period for syndicate meeting is normally fourteen (14) days. The agenda of these meetings were not issued on time as per procedure mentioned in rule of business of Syndicate, neither gave the time required for of minutes to be confirmed.
Now a bit about financial embezzlement, Dr. Sarwar has distributed an amount of Rs. 1.6 million as an honorarium to the staff of different offices during the last two days of his tenure. He is not the competent authority to grant honorarium. No cogent reason was given for the grant of such an honorarium. The beneficiaries include his cronies, who supported him on his all illegal activities. Some of of them are, Mr. Muhammad Asif (Registrar), Asad Masud (Project Director) and Affan Nawaz (Secretary to VC). Further, Mr. Affan Nawaz was granted four advance increments on his regular appointment and Dr. Sarwar allotted him residence in the university illegally, ignoring the senior most officer, who had 10 years regular service, whereas Mr. Affan has only less than one-year regular service. Mr. Asad Masud was granted five advance increments on his regular appointment on BPS 19 and enjoyed the accommodation of Grade 21 officer. These officers are getting undue benefits, because the act and accept all the illegal orders of Dr. Sarwar.
He has appointed Dr. Shoukat Ali, a retired Professor in Punjab University as member selection board as an eminent person. He got forceful retirement on the orders of Honorable Court. The allegation was of forgery in the documents (change of date on birth certificate). Dear Sir, can forgery be the reason of eminence and appointment on the prestigious forums of UET? One can easily understand the ill motives of Dr. Sarwar for recommending him in the different forums of UET, Lahore.
Dr. Sawar for his internal satisfaction put a lot of pressure on administrative staff and teaching faculty. He misused the authority and initiated inquiries under PEEDA Act against number of those employees, who were not ready to listen or accept his illegal orders. In such cases, the inquiry committees were constituted by Dr. Sarwar. The members are so chosen (mostly cronies), that they wrote reports as per the direction of their boss. It is significant to mention that all his adverse decision against faculty and staff were, later turned down by the Honorable Chancellor.
It is humbly requested from the Honorable Governor of Punjab/Chancellor of UET Lahore to kindly inquire all these matter and special committee may be constituted to investigate all these issues. The honorable chancellor is further requested to direct Vice Chancellor to make all the appointments as per the seniority and rules, regulations, and statutes to save the premier institute of Pakistan.
It is further prayed that Dr. Sarwar may not be appointed as Vice Chancellor in any of the University in the province of Punjab to save the sanctity of the institutions and to save the faculty/staff especially the female staff from harassment.
Your’s sincerely
Muhammad Altaf Younas
