It has been recently announced that the Vice Chancellor of Ghazi University has appointed Dr. Muhammad Asif the Registrar to hold other senior offices even when he is under formal investigations under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline, and Accountability (PEEDA) Act 2006. These enquiries, which were commissioned after some severe claims of incompetence and malpractices, were endorsed by the university Syndicate which is the most important decision-making organ of the university.
Set without any prior indication of the status of these investigations, the appointments can be considered as a serious violation to proper procedural norms and an indication of poor governance and administrative transparency within the institution.
Some faculty, including assistant and associate professors representing a range of departments had been placed on formal disciplinary measures and a committee had been put in charge to review him on these charges. It had been made clear to the Syndicate that these proceedings should be in the light of the law before the final settlement of any administrative promotion or assignment could take place.
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This assimilation of the new appointments thus seems to be working against the instructions of the Syndicate, compromising both institutional authority and accountability. It has been the concern among university stakeholders that these kinds of decisions could jeopardize the credibility of leadership and administrative functions at Ghazi university. Integrity within the sphere of academic governance depends on transparency and compliance with regulatory models.
The Vice Chancellor of Ghazi University should also make sure that all the administrative undertakings such as appointment are coherent with the Syndicate approvals and existing inquisitions to be faithful and foster organizational decency.
