UET Abbottabad PCATP accreditation issue

UET Abbottabad students seek PCATP accreditation
Peshawar, June 01: Students of the Architecture Department at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Abbottabad campus, staged a protest here Monday to demand accreditation from the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town-Planners (PCATP).

Carrying banners and placards, the protestors raised slogans in favour of their demands. Speakers reminded that the one-point agenda of the architecture students was accreditation from the PCATP.

They said the UET administration had been ignoring their demand for the last seven years. They said the accreditation would not only improve their capabilities but also bring the department to required standards.

With the non-accredited degree, a student will not be given government job, admission in any national or international institution for higher education like masters, the protestors pointed out. "Without PCATP registration, we will not be able to practice our profession as qualified architects," said a student.

The students demanded that courses must be taught by professionals, members of PCATP and other professional bodies. "The programme should hire full-time faculty with qualification of the required standards; the student-teacher ratio must be 1:15 for studio; there must be 5,000 books available in library; head of the department or chairperson should be from the same discipline, i.e. either architecture or town planner," said another student.

Students in the field (batch I and II) are unable to get job satisfaction due to their unaccredited degrees and indifferent attitude of the teachers, they added. "At architecture department, we need architects to teach us while the department is interested in employing civil engineers because of the some vested interests," maintained students in the joint statement.

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Probe sought into UoP teacher beating issue
Peshawar: Azad Pakhtun Students Federation, University of Peshawar, staged a protest at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday to demand probe into the manhandling of a senior university teacher. Led by its president Akhtar Iqbal Yousafzai, the protesters chanted slogans in favour of their demands and called for immediate release of Asadullah Mayar and his companions who were arrested for allegedly attacking Professor Dr Faqeera Khan Faqri of the Urdu Department recently. The speakers threatened to hold protest demonstrations throughout the province if their demands were not met. They said the students and professor exchanged hot words over denial of admission to the department. The students also asked the governor to expel the politicised and corrupt professors from all educational institutions.

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UoP admin accepts plea by ex-UPS principal
Peshawar: The long-drawn case of award of grade-20 between a former principal of University Public School (UPS), Malak Naz, and the University of Peshawar (UoP) finally reached its conclusion as the varsity administration accepted the appeal of the academician for granting him grade-20 with effect from August 8, 1994 and monetary benefits from March 15, 1998.

In this connection, Law Officer of the UoP Riaz Khan produced varsity's notification issued by the secretary to governor on May 21 last before a division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) comprising Justice Liaquat Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi, in which both the appeals of the petitioner were accepted by the varsity administration.

The petitioner said that he joined Islamia College (then a constituent college of UoP in 1973 and was later appointed associate professor of English on October 12, 1990 in grade-19 in the same college. On the recommendations of the Selection Board, the UoP Syndicate appointed him principal of UPS in 1992 in the same grade-19.

He remained principal of this till his retirement in November 2009 i.e. for about 18 years. It may be noted that, since April 2009, Malak Naz has been appointed as Director, Institute of Education & Research (IER) of the UoP on a three years contract.

When contacted, Malak Naz said that he fought his cases within the available legal channels not for the sake of keeping his job but to uphold the truth against "those who wanted to use the UoP machinery for furthering their own agenda."

He expressed profound thanks to the chancellor and the present university administration for upholding his cause on merit, and granting him what had been unlawfully denied to him for such a long time.

The petitioner said that following his appointment as UPS principal a group of UPS teachers contended that he was a usurper because the seat of principal was their right by the virtue of automatic promotion.

Between 1992 and 2002, he said, he was subjected to various enquiries ranging from the governor inspection team, provincial inspection team, three syndicate enquiry committees, two VC's enquiry committees and a special audit enquiry, etc.

In the process, he was thrice removed from his post as UPS principal, but was reinstated twice by the chancellor and once by the civil court. He was also appointed an OSD and director of English Language Center of the UoP on a non-existing post.

He said after failing in all its attempts to oust him, the syndicate finally brought about amendment in the mode of appointment of UPS principal. This amendment was later approved by UoP Senate and was sent to the then chancellor.

The amendment aimed at taking powers of appointment of Principal from Selection Board and resting them solely at the discretion of the VC. Being specifically designed to remove Malak Naz, the amendment was to be implemented with retrospective effects. However, Malak Naz challenged the amendment in PHC where the entire amendment, even though passed through the Syndicate, the Senate and the Chancellor was declared null and void being in violation of the UoP Act, 1974 where all appointments in grade 17 and above are to be made by the Syndicate on the recommendations of the Selection Board and not that of the VC. The news

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