KP governor urges CM to appoint regular VCs in universities

PESHAWAR
Governor Faisal Karim Kundi has written a letter to the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur asking him to pay serious attention towards the issue of non-appointment of Vice-Chancellors (VCs) in public sector universities across the province.
In the letter, the Governor KP has asked CM Gandapur to initiate the process of appointment to important posts, including Vice-Chancellors in the universities.
The Governor has highlighted that prolonged delay in the appointment of VCs has exposed the public sector universities of the province to financial, administrative and academic challenges, putting the future of the students in jeopardy.
The letter states that under Section 12 (3) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Sector Universities Act, 2012, the process of appointment of Vice Chancellors should be started six months before the completion of the tenure of the serving Vice Chancellors.
According to the letter, the academic search committee has sent recommendations for the appointment of vice-chancellors to the provincial government, the approval process of which has not yet started
Faisal Karim Kundi furthered that the Peshawar High Court In the brief judgment of the recently filed writ petition, said that the University of Science and Technology is running without a permanent Vice Chancellor, Registrar, the Pro Vice Chancellor has been working for a long time and no serious efforts have been made to appoint a permanent VC. “In the light of these facts, we need to work together to solve the financial, administrative and academic crisis of the public sector universities of the province,” it added and stated that in case of failure, the future of higher education in the province will also suffer from expressing displeasure before the Peshawar High Court.
It is pertinent to mention here that in KP as many as 25 public sector universities are currently operating without regular VCs.
The issue of the VC appointment in public sector universities has been highlighted by mainstream media, civil society, students and universities academic staff association but no tangible action has been taken so far.