Muhammad Asad Saleem
LAHORE: A dustup has begun between Punjab University Academic Staff Association and newly appointed vice chancellor on the issue of his statement regarding university’s ranking in the city, as two separate statements were issued by both the parties on Sunday.
PU ASA expressed serious concerns over the statement of Acting Vice Chancellor Dr Zafar Mueen Nasar in which, they said, the VC has undermined the ranking of the university and declared “PU a lower level university even in Lahore”.
In the press statement, the ASA executive council said that the VC’s remarks about university ranking had caused anger among faculty members because PU teachers had worked day and night to improve university ranking. They said that in the latest ranking released by HEC, PU was at No 2 in the country while Dr Zafar Moeen’s favorite university Lahore University of Management Sciences was far below in the list.
ASA said that PU teachers were being insulted by the VC’s continuous remarks about LUMS and PU. “It was being felt they he (VC) wanted to bring the best public sector university of the country under private institutions. They said that Dr Zafar Mueen was not aware of the ground realities of public sector universities and thus damaging the prestige of the greatest alma matter of hundreds of thousands of PU graduates. They said LUMS consisted of a few institutions charging highest fee while PU consisted of more than 83 academic institutions which had major contributions in the national life.
PU spokesman clarification: Soon after the realse of ASA statement, PU spokesman issued his point of view that Academic Staff Association was misquoting PU Vice Chancellor as saying and was presenting his statement in a wrong way. The Spokesman said Dr Zafar Mueen Nasir talked about raising standard of the university, however, his statement was being misrepresented. He said the vice chancellor had presented a comprehensive strategy to uplift research standard of the university and he would ensure quality education and research on campus.