LARKANA: The three-member committee constituted to hold an inquiry into 400 appointments made in the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) paid what was described as an `unscheduled` visit to the institution on Monday to start its probe.

The universities and education boards secretary, Naveed Shaikh, had informed the university`s administration about the committee through a notification issued on May 8.

The notification stated that the committee was headed by the Larkana commissioner with former Chandka Medical College principal Prof Dr Sher Mohammed Shaikh and Higher Education Commission (HEC) Sindh director Noor Ahmed Shah being the other members.

On Monday, Larkana Additional Commissioner Rana Adeel Tasawwur along with the two committee members called on SMBBMU registrar Prof Dr Afsar Bhutto in his office and discussed with him the inquiry`s terms of reference (ToRs).

The registrar was informed that the inquiry team would see whether the required formalities were followed in the recruitment process.

He was also told that the committee would ascertain whether irregularities were committed and, if such things were detected, it would fix responsibility.

The committee spent about two-and-ahalf hours with the registrar and initiated its probe with a variety of questions asked of Majid Samoo, former director of human resources at the SMBBMU.

Prof Bhutto, talking to Dawn, said that files, documents or data relating to the appointment process could not be presented to the committee because he or any other official of the university administration was unaware of its [committee`s] visit.

Advertisements for the jobs in question were placed in the print media in February 2015 and March 2016. The interviews of 875 short-listed candidates out of 1,810 applicants were conducted on Feb 25 at the Arija campus and 400 of them were issued offer letters.

`They are currently waiting for their posting,` university officials said.