The move has caused a great unrest among the PU teachers who have termed the move �a waste of university resources� in the name of relief and injustice to the candidates within notified requirements.
According to PU rules, approved in 2006, a copy available with The News, the university teachers/ officers with a minimum of three years regular service and maximum age of 40 years, on or before the last date of receipt of applications, are eligible for overseas scholarships. Though the instant cases do not mean full scholarships yet according to university teachers, the condition of 40 years also applies in the particular cases.
It is pertinent to mention here that in a recent meeting, held on November 30, the Overseas Scholarship and Travel Grant Committee, chaired by PU Vice-Chancellor Mujahid Kamran, approved cases of four faculty members who were around or in some cases even over 50 years of age. For each of the faculty members, the committee approved a �relief� of Rs1.5 million for their PhD. These faculty members are Ms Rabia Arif, Assistant Professor, of the PU Institute of Education & Research (IER), Aamir Sarwar, Assistant Professor, of the Institute of Business & Information Technology (IBIT), Mrs Nighat G Ansari, Assistant Professor, of Institute of Administrative Sciences and Ms Khalida Sarwar, lecturer at the IER.
Sources privy to the developments said that some of these faculty members had earlier applied for full overseas scholarships but their cases were rejected because of the age limit; however, they had now been �accommodated� under the �relief package.�
A faculty member, seeking anonymity, said the condition of age limit was meant to spend varsity resources on teachers who, after completing their PhDs, could serve the university for quite some time.
�It is, therefore, the Higher Education Commission has also set the age limit condition and it does not award scholarships to government employees who are over 40 years,� he said, adding that there was no precedent in the PU history that �relief� had been provided to faculty members for overseas PhD scholarships. Another faculty member termed the move �a waste of university resources,� saying the funds were meant to support only those teachers who were not more than 40 years of age and could serve the university for a good period of time after their PhDs. It is important to mention here that Dr Mujahid Kamran would complete his term as PU VC on January 2, 2012. The post has already been advertised and Dr Mujahid Kamran is once again candidate for the post. Many of the PU faculty members believe that the recent �relief� episode does not go in favour of Dr Kamran and it can also damage his candidature.
However, PU Overseas Scholarship and Travel Grant Committee�s Secretary Tariq Majeed Qureshi sees things totally opposite. He terms the relief a result of the VC�s vision to enhance the number of PhD teachers, saying the PhD faculty was vital for the university. He also claimed that as per the rules, the age limit was 45 years, adding that the VC was the competent authority and could relax the age limit. He said a faculty member had to spend Rs6 million to Rs8 million for overseas PhD and there was no harm if they were provided some relief by the university. �After all they can serve the university for some years after their PhDs,� said Mr Qureshi, also director of planning and development at the varsity, adding all members of the committee had unanimously decided to approve the relief. He confirmed that the cases of some of the teachers were rejected in the past owing to age limit, therefore, no0w the committee had approved relief for them.
The News