PESHAWAR: The University of Malakand’s notorious ex-Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr Gul Zaman, was back in contention for the top post despite being allegedly found guilty of 16 serious charges last year that include discrimination, favoritism, irregularities, hurling death threats to staffers etc.

In a blatant violation of an inquiry verdict against him last year, that allegedly found him guilty of 16 serious charges, the controversial Gul Zaman was yet again short-listed among the candidates for the UoM vice chancellor’s post last week and subsequently appeared for an interview as well.

It may be mentioned here that following the inquiry report against Dr Zaman last year, a Senate meeting held in September 2021 severely criticised his conduct and poor performance as the UoM vice chancellor.

The detailed inquiry report, a copy of which is available with the scribe, confirms that Dr Zaman was found guilty of 16 charges of serious nature that include discrimination, favoritism, irregularities in appointments, hurling death threats to teachers and staffers amongst others, on basis of which the September 20, 2021 Senate meeting took decisions, was sadly made public only recently.

“For a negative-minded, black-hearted person like Dr Gul Zaman, who has allegedly been found guilty of so many serious charges, to get shortlisted again for the VCs post is extremely disturbing and disappointing for all the staff members as well as the students,” lamented a senior Malakand University employee while speaking on the condition of anonymity.

He recalled Dr Gul Zaman’s unpardonable and shameful conduct as the vice chancellor more than a year ago when he hurled death threats to UoM teachers and added that his return will be detrimental for the university.

It may be mentioned here that the Malakand University witnessed serious upheaval during the final year of Gul Zaman’s tenure that led to a week-long employees’ strike, called in the wake of the former VC’s death threats to peacefully protesting teaching staff, amongst whom more than 70 submitted a serious complaint to the Higher Education Department [HEC provincial body] and to the then chancellor Shah Farman.

The chancellor subsequently constituted an inquiry to probe the allegations against Dr Zaman, which was headed by the former special secretary of the Higher Education Department. During the inquiry, the MoU staff levelled forty charges against the former VC.

The committee after a thorough probe found dozens of charges against Dr Zaman to be true and suggested a deeper probe into four of the charges. Furthermore, according to the inquiry report, the appointments and promotion of Dr Shafiq-Ur-Rahman, Dr Alam Zeb and Dr Ikram Ilahi were declared illegal.

“The cases of Dr Shafiq-Ur-Rehman and Dr Alam Zeb were conditionally approved by Syndicate, subject to the validity of their research papers in Z category from the HEC. The record reveals that no advice of the HEC in writing was secured, neither is it available on record,” stated the inquiry report regarding illegal promotions and appointments made by the former VC.

Besides, the inquiry report also termed illegal the 42 contractual appointments and eight others made through walk-in-interview during Dr Zaman’s tenure and added that the charges of victimization, favouritism and irregularities in appointments against the former vice chancellor proved to be correct.

The probe committee, seemingly relying on the proofs provided by the faculty, stated that the Dr Zaman hired employees in excess of the advertised posts. However, the faculty could not provide solid proof to support the charge of tampering with the draft statutes by the former VC and, therefore, the charge was dropped.

The probe body constituted by Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had recommended that the Senate must form a committee of experts to probe further irregularities committed by the former vice chancellor.

However, instead of pursuing the Governor’s recommendations and penalising Dr Zaman for his alleged misdeeds, the authorities have once again invited Dr Gul Zaman as a candidate for the VC’s post which is lying vacant.