Varsities operating under the purview of the federal government and the four provincial governments continue to operate without regular and permanent appointees to critical posts three months after the top court had directed to ensure that these positions are either vacant or temporarily filled.
The relevant secretaries of the ministries, the chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), and university officials have been directed to submit a response within 14 days regarding their failure to comply with court directions and for failing to implement the law.
This was directed in a nine-page order issued by a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, which had conducted hearings into a case filed by the All Public Universities BPS Teachers Association (APUBTA).
The APUBTA chief had filed a petition urging the top court to look into the matter of varsities which were operating either without any heads or with several key positions vacant or had appointed people to these positions on a temporary basis.
Following its last hearing and order on the matter on May 15, 2024, the top court reconvened to review the compliance reports received from the federal government and the four provinces.
"Universities must not leave vacant important positions of vice-chancellors, presidents, vice presidents, registrars, heads of faculties and departments, controller of examination and director finance as in doing so they contravene the applicable laws," the court stated in the order, adding, "This state of affairs whereby the law is disregarded cannot be allowed to continue."
The court said that considerable sums from the public exchequer are spent on public-sector universities which must abide by their respective laws.
"Unfortunately, we note that many are being run in contravention of their laws on the personal whim of those placed in charge thereof. These transgressions adversely affect academics, the reputation, and standing of Pakistani universities and also undermine the degrees awarded by them."
Federal govt
In its report, the Ministry for Federal Education and Professional Training said it oversees only 12 universities operating across the country.
Of these, some universities had filled all tenured positions with regular and permanent appointments.
The Hyderabad Institute for Technology and Management Sciences, which appointed a Rector on July 21, 2023, failed to fill all other tenured positions, including the registrar, finance director, and examination controller, which were still vacant.
The Kalam Bibi International Women Institute in Bannu remains without a vice-chancellor, and all other tenured positions remain vacant.
Similarly, the Pir Roshaan Institute of Progressive Sciences and Technologies, located in Miran Shah, North Waziristan, remains without a vice-chancellor, and all other tenured positions are vacant.
At the National Fertilizers Corporation (NFC) Institute Engineering and Technology in Multan, the report claimed that it remains in the vice grip of Engineer Professor Dr Akhtar Ali Malik, who has allegedly been illegally occupying the post of vice-chancellor for more than a decade and has never undergone the proper competitive recruitment process. He has allegedly maintained his positions, bypassed the rules thanks to his political affiliation, and misinterpreted the institute's rules/statutes to extend his stay illegally. Further, several tenured positions had been filled on an acting-charge basis. These positions included that of the registrar (appointed on an acting-charge basis since June 13, 2019), Treasurer (since January 1, 2022) and Controller Examination (since September 1, 2020).
Since November 2022, the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology in Karachi has made temporary appointments to tenured positions of Registrar, Treasurer, and Controller of Examinations.
In the prestigious National College of Arts in Lahore, temporary appointments have been made on the tenured positions of the Registrar, the Treasurer, and the Controller of Examination since December 4, 2021.
At the National Skills University in Islamabad, the incumbent vice-chancellor's tenure expired on October 22, 2023, but he has been allowed to continue as an Acting Vice-Chancellor since January 9, 2024. Moreover, the positions of the Registrar, the Treasurer, and the Controller of Examination remain vacant.
The Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad had permanently appointed employees to all tenured positions except for one: the Dean for the Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies. The court was told that this position had only recently become vacant on May 20, 2024.
Pakistan's highest-ranked unversity, the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, has appointed individuals on a regular and permanent basis to all 29 tenured positions of deans and chairpersons in the varsity. However, the report submitted by the government did not disclose the status about the Registrar, Treasurer and Controller of Examination.
The National Textile University in Faisalabad and the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design in Lahore had filled all tenured positions, with the appointments to these positions made on regular and
permanent basis.
The government claimed that the International Islamic University in Islamabad has 55 tenured positions of Directors-General, Deans, and Chairpersons. The report, however, did not disclose how many of these positions had been temporarily filled.
The petitioner's counsel alleged that the varsity's president had temporarily assigned a dean the duties of the Vice-President (Administration and Finance) in contravention of section 14(2) of the IIUI Ordinance 1985.
Further, the report said that the University's Board of Trustees failed to meet in 2021 and 2022, and as such, Section 18(1) of the Ordinance, which prescribes that the Board' shall meet at least once during a year for regular or scheduled meetings', was apparently contravened.
The top court noted that during the hearing, they were informed the varsity's Board of Trustees had met on December 11, 2023, but the varsity had failed to issue the minutes of that meeting for over seven months.
The report further stated that the University's Board of Governors had not met since September 2023 in an apparent violation of Section 20(1) of the IIUI Ordinance, which mandates that the board of governors' shall ordinarily meet once in three months.
Balochistan
In Balochistan, the government said that vice-chancellors were working on an acting-charge basis in three universities. These universities include the University of Balochistan, University of Turbat, and
the Mir Chakar Khan Rind University in Sibi.
Moreover, vice-chancellors at two universities were working after the Balochistan High Court issued stay orders. These included the vice-chancellors at the Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, and the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 of the 34 universities are working without a regular vice-chancellor.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Advocate General submitted before the top court that the process to appoint vice-chancellors at the 19 universities was almost complete and that a summary mentioning three names against each vacant post had been sent for approval to the provincial cabinet. However, a copy of this summary was not submitted to the court, nor was the criteria for selecting these candidates shared.
Information about other tenured posts and whether or not meetings are regularly held of the Senate, Syndicate, Board of Governors, has also not been provided.
Punjab
The Punjab government informed the Supreme Court that 25 of the 34 public sector universities in the province were operating without a regular vice-chancellor.
Punjab's Additional Advocate-General submitted that the Lahore High Court had prohibited the caretaker government from appointing these positions. However, after the election of a new government in February, search committees were formed, and the process of appointments in these varsities are expected to be completed within the next two months.
Sindh
The Sindh government's report stated that seven universities in the province are currently operating without a regular vice-chancellor.
The report further conceded that several universities have failed to hold the prescribed meetings of their statutory bodies.
Of these, the University of Karachi held only one meeting of its Senate when its law mandates that at least two meetings be held annually. Similarly, it held only five meetings of its Syndicate, while the law mandates ten annual meetings. Moreover, it held only two meetings of the Academic Council, while the law mandates 12 meetings annually.
The Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University in Larkana held only two meetings of its Syndicate, even though the law mandates that at least four meetings are held annually. Moreover, only one meeting of the Senate was held while the law mandates at least two annual meetings.
The Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law did not hold any meeting of the Senate, even though the law mandates that at least two annual meetings be held.
The Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Jamshoro held only one meeting of its Senate, even though the law mandates a minimum of two meetings yearly.
Similarly, the People's University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women in Shaheed Benzairabad held only one meeting of its Senate while the law mandates at least two meetings annually.
The University of Sufism and Modern Science in Bhitshah also held only one meeting of its Senate, despite the law mandating at least two meetings annually.
The Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur held only three meetings of its Syndicate, while the law mandates ten meetings annually. Further, it held only one meeting of the Senate while the law mandates at least two annual meetings.
Regarding the status of tenured positions, the Sindh government's report states that many tenured positions in these universities have been filled on a temporary basis. The top court, however, noted that this does not appear to conform to the law.
"The public sector universities must comply with their respective laws, and if those in charge of them are disregarding the same for no justifiable reason, then they must demonstrate that they are still competent to hold their respective positions," the court said.
"The laws governing these universities require that the meetings of syndicates, senates, boards of governors and boards of trustees, as applicable, must be periodically held."
Staffing problems
The Supreme Court further noted in its order that the HEC had prescribed an ideal ratio of academic to non-academic staff in varsities at 1:1.5.
However, the court noted that nearly all universities failed to abide by this ratio, with non-academic staff often far exceeding the prescribed ratio.
The court said that this appears to be one reason why many universities faced financial problems.
With regard to the violations noted in the reports submitted by the federal and provincial governments, the top court directed the relevant officials of the respective departments of federal and provincial governments. The court also directed the relevant officials of varsities, including vice-chancellors, acting vice-chancellors, and rectors, to submit within 14 days written explanations of why the applicable law continues to be violated. These officials were directed to appear in person at the next hearing of the case, which would be held at the expiration date of 14 days.