The Senate Standing Committee on Education, Science and Technology met here on Wednesday and discussed the issue of reported withdrawal of discretionary powers of the Governors to appoint Vice Chancellors of universities.
Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Atta-ur-Rehman gave a detailed presentation on the issue to the committee's meeting chaired by Senator. Razina Alam Khan and said the powers of the provincial governors had not been withdrawn.
However, the process of appointing the Vice Chancellors was modified by the Chancellors themselves in the second Chancellors' Committee meeting chaired by the President on May 11.
He said the matter was misreported in the press that the HEC had been empowered to constitute search committee of scholars to suggest a panel to the Chancellor and to enable the Chancellors to nominate or reject the nominee as Vice Chancellors for the universities.
He clarified that HEC had nothing to do with the appointment of Search Committee and the Chancellors were free to appoint Vice Chancellors according to the procedure. He said the formation of Search Committee was a procedure, which the Chancellors have adopted to select the most competent among the panel.
Replying to various queries from the Movers and the Members of the Committee, he said change in the process of the selection of the Vice Chancellors had been approved to ensure impartial and competitive selection of the most appropriate professional as Vice Chancellor who could provide the vision and leadership required to transform universities as internationally recognised institutions for higher education, research and technology.
The movers Senators Mian Raza Rabbani, Sadia Abbasi and Raza Muhammad Raza gave their point of view and said the procedure adopted would undermine the provincial autonomy and underlined the need for carrying out necessary legislation making it obligatory on the Chancellors to appoint Vice Chancellors in line with the procedure.
The Chairperson of the Committee said the procedure adopted by the Chancellors was aimed at making it convenient to select the best possible person for the post and that it was not binding for the Chancellors/Governors.
Senators, Tahira Latif, Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Rehana Yahya Baloch, S. Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Dr Muhammad Said, Maulvi Agha Muhammad, Sajid Mir and Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan attended the meeting.