ISLAMABAD: Upon completion of the four-year term of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) President Dr Hathal Homoud Alotaibi, the university got an acting president through a controversial notification raising a serious legal question.

According to the notification issued by the rector of the IIUI, consequent upon the completion of the term of the president on July 16: `The Rector IIUI in term of sub-section 2 of section 13 of IIUI ordinance 1985 has been pleased to appoint Prof Dr Mohammad Sarwar (Vice President Administration and Finance) to perform duties of President IIUI, with effect from July 17, 2024 till further orders.

Many faculty members of IIUIhave termed the appointment illegal.

They said according to the IIUI Ordinance, only the vice president can be given the charge of the acting president. They said the ordinance was very clear that the board of governors (BOG) of the IIUI was the appointing authority of the vice president.

They said Dr Sarwar, the contractual Dean of Education Department, was never appointed by BOG, rather just a week ago (on July 10), the outgoing president gave him the look-after charge of the office of Vice President (Finance and Administration).

Subsequently, the rector gave him the acting charge of the president as well, at a time when his basic appointment as the look-after VP was under question.

For the post of acting president, Dr Sarwar was also given prefer-ence over two other VPs, who were appointed by BOG.0