LAHORE: The Punjab government has asked the outgoing Punjab University vice chancellor, Dr Mujahid Kamran, to continue in his office till the appointment of a regular incumbent.
The government notifie d him VC for an interim period a day before his tenure is expiring on Friday (today).
`As the Vice Chancellors Search Committee has recommended a panel of three candidates to the chief minister to appoint the PU vice chancellor, it has been decided to ask Mr Kamran to continue inoffice for interim period,` Punjab Higher Education Secretary Irfan Ali told Dawn on Thursday.
The five-member VCs Search Committee headed by Syed Babar Ali has already submitted a panel of three candidates each for the slots of VCs of the Punjab University, the Lahore College for Women University, the Sargodha University and the Nawaz Sharif Engineering University Multan to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. It had shortlisted the candidates after interviewing 90 aspirants.
Mujahid Kamran is among the27 faculty members of the Punjab University who has applied for the slot of the PU VC.
Earlier, Lahore College for Women University`s former VC Sabiha Mansoor was not lucky enough to get another term in office when she completed her tenure a couple of months ago.
Mr Kamran is being tipped a favourite to get the third term because of his `right connections` though the higher education secretarydidnotconfirmthathe (Kamran) was among the three shortlisted candidates (for PU VC slot).The chief minister is likely to interview the shortlisted candidates for the slots of the VCs of the universities in question soon.
Just last month the Lahore High Court had stayed the appointment process for the post of the Punjab University vice chancellor and restrained the Punjab government from finalising names of aspirants till its decision on a petition questioning the jurisdiction of the government in the matter. The government said the court had not stopped the committee from doing its work.
