LAHORE: Education sector elders on Wednesday put their heads together to suggest to the chief minister to have seconds thoughts about his plan of reducing the term of vice chancellors (VCs) of public sector universities in Punjab to two years.

Their efforts bore fruit as newlyposted secretary Irfan Ali of the Higher Education Department agreed to move a summary to the chief minister not to cut the VCs tenure, a source privy to the development told Dawn on Wednesday.

Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairman Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Vice Chancellor Dr Sohail Naqvi took the initiative to develop a consensus among academics on the issue.

`The two along with other educa-tion elders held a meeting with HED Secretary Irfan Ali on Wednesday. All the participants had consensus that the chief minister should be formally requested to review the decision which would further delay the appointments of VCs.

`Seeking applications for a post for four-year term and then cutting it by half will definitely result in litigation which will further delay the appointments, leading to administrative and academic chaos in these institutions. Two-year term is too short for implementing any new policy in an educational institution were the major arguments against the term-cut move,` said the source.

The plan has drawn much criticism from senior academics hailing not only from Punjab but from other provinces as well. A number of academic staff associations also have chalked out plans to hold series of protest against the move.