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| Islamic University doesn’t get new | | VC due to godfathers’ tug-of-war | | Wahid’s overstay enters 10th month as Chancellor fails to take decision
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Jun 27: Political and bureaucratic godfathers of aspirants have been in a tug-of-war to install their blue-eyed boys on the top position of Vice Chancellor at Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) (Awantipore) Kashmir. With two successive Chancellors, N N Vohra and Omar Abdullah, failing to take decision over the appointment of a new VC, retired incumbent Sidique Wahid has already overstayed for nine months. Regular academic activity, including research and expansion programmes of the University, has consequently suffered.
Even as IUST’s founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was proactively visible to engineer Prof Sidique Wahid’s extension for two years these days last year, his political adversaries---including then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad---were keen to appoint a new head for the University. In his capacity as Head of the Government (who happens to be IUST’s Chancellor and appointing authority of the VC) Governor N N Vohra constituted a search committee days before Wahid’s three-year term expired on 22nd September 2008. Neither Azad nor his successor, granted extension in Wahid’s tenure which could have been extended by two years. Highly placed official sources insist there were “complaints of serious nature” against the sitting incumbent.
Notwithstanding the fact that Mufti and his PDP had completely vanished in an unexpected conflict of regional and communal orientation in Jammu & Kashmir in the middle of 2008, the former Chief Minister is understood to have influenced composition of the search committee. The search committee, under the Act, comprises four members----one each nominee of Chancellor and University Grants Commission (UGC and two more to be nominated by IUST’s Executive Council. At least one of the members was known for his proximity to the PDP patriarch.
In November, search committee, headed by former vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim university and a retired J&K Bureaucrats, Mahmood-ur Rehman, submitted to the Chancellor a panel of four candidates. Those recommended for the coveted position included former Head of PG Department of Economics and Dean Faculty of Social Sciences at Kashmir University, Prof Nisar Ali, then Chairman of J&K State Board of School Education and Professor of Law at University of Jammu, Prof Nisar Ahmed Ganai, then Director of Computer Science at KU, Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Pir and a Professor of Jamia Millia Islamia. Even as the search committee finalized four nominees under Section 2 (clause 1) of the Act, the fourth member recorded his recommendation in favour of his own nominee and a Mufti favourite, Sidique Wahid, whose term had expired on 22nd September 2008 and had not been granted extension by the competent authority.
According to section 2 (clause 4) of the Act “The Vice Chancellor shall hold office for a minimum of three years, extendable upto five years from the date on which he enters upon the office and shall, on expiration of his term of office, be ineligible for appointment to that office”.
While Mufti favoured Sidique Wahid, knowledgeable sources insist that J&K Pradesh Congress Committee chief and then a Union Minister, Prof Saifuddin Soz, did visible lobbying in favour of Dr Mushtaq Pir. Enjoying considerable political clout, Pir was later accommodated as Chairman of J&K Board of Professional Examinations. Professor from JMI seemed to be little inclined but after change of the regime on January 5th, 2009, Prof Ganai too got an edge. Though he does not carry the reputation of nepotism and pushing his men through backdoor, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Khursheed Ahmed Ganai happens to be a close relative of Prof Ganai.
As Prof Nisar Ali, who figures at serial number one of the panel, does not happen to be a favourite of any senior politician or bureaucrat, file of the appointment of new VC for IUST has been gathering dust at Chief Minister’s office since November last year. Yet again, the beneficiary of indecisiveness is Mufti’s favourite, Sidique Wahid, whose overstay at IUST has entered 10th month on June 22nd.
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