Dearth of candidates for VC DUHS

MN Report
KARACHI-  Government of Sindh has failed to finalize the name of candidate for the post of Vice Chancellor Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) despite the lapse over seven months, affecting the administrative and research activities in Sindh’s largest medical university.

An official of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) told that over seven months have been passed but government of Sindh yet to finalize the name of official for the post VC DUHS. He said delay in appointment of VC has badly affected the administrative affairs of varsity while research activities was slow downed due to unavailability of prominent VC.

He said Chief Minister and Governor Sindh wanted to appoint their favorites for post of VC DUHS therefore the appointment has been delayed by several months. The post of Vice Chancellor Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) is lying vacant since September 2015.

The provincial Government formed Vice Chancellor Search Committee has short listed the names three professors out of twelve including Prof Saeed Qureshi, Prof Amjad Siraj and Prof Umer Farooq after interviews. But Governor Sindh issued notification of Prof Noushad Shaikh for VC DUHS which was suspended by Sindh High Court (SHC) as Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) challenged his posting.

Chief Minister Sindh again sent a summary to Governor Sindh for appointment of Prof Noushad Shaikh for VC DUHS but governor had rejected the summary due to legal issues.  The Chief Minister Sindh again sent  summary of appointment Prof Saeed Qureshi for the post of VC DUHS few days ago but summary is still not approved by Governor who is also the Chancellor of DUHS.

Secretary General, Pakistan Medical Association (Centre),Dr Mirza Ali Azhar said delay in appointment of VC DUHS causing immense destruction of medical education in Sindh province. He said administrative affairs of medical university are being run through acting Vice Chancellor since last seven or eight months.

He said a lobby wants their hold in university whole life but these tactics has brought bad name of Sindh in medical education. He said open violation of merit has continued in university by handing over administrative power to an acting VC.