The vice chancellor of the University of Health Science has been given a 10 day deadline by the city's top court to comply with an earlier order or else he could face contempt of court. The court order on Wednesday stems from a contempt application by Qaisar Rasheed who has revealed his concern over the quality of research and teaching at the university.
The deadline comes after Vice Chancellor Muhammad Aslam failed to comply with the order given to him on May 11. The court said, "The last opportunity has been given to the respondent to comply with the order in 10 days after receiving the certified copy of this order. Otherwise, contempt proceedings will be initiated against him." In a string of letters to the vice chancellor, the petitioner had already voiced his concern. In his petition, he said he was a medical doctor by profession and got a master's degree in molecular biology from the University of Westminster in London in 2002.
He also talked about himself, apart from three other candidates who had sat for an entry test for the university's PhD programme in immunology earlier this year, being the only one who got more than 70 percent of marks. "The other two candidates, who had completed their masters of philosophy degrees from the UHS [the University of Health Science], flunked the exam," he said in his petition. "This worried me much about the quality of teaching and research at this university."
He argued that he had also questioned the vice chancellor's competence and his British PhD degree and the absence of any book written by him on physiology after having a 35-year teaching experience. He has asked the court to suspend the university's activities unless the vice chancellor himself responded to the court and take action against him for misguiding the public and the scientific community in dubious publications.