TBT Report : Irregularities surfaced in Jashore University of Science and Technology (JSTU) in appointing their teachers and officials. Earlier, 9 officials and teachers of the university were accused of using fake certificates. Dr. Iqbal Kabir Zahid, a faculty of microbiology department and Deputy Director of Planning and Development Department Abdul Rauf’s name found in the list, different sources reported.

Per the sources, in the case of Prof. Iqbal Kabir Zahid, he was recruited without fulfilling the conditions laid in the vacancy announcement advertisement. And the post in which Abdur Rauf has been recruited has not been announced at all.

For this reason, it was decided to take legal action against the accused by the Board of Regents of JSTU on October 29 who forged their certificates. Since the release of the Board of Regents’ list, new provisions have been added to the regulations in line with the political situation.

Microbiology faculty, Iqbal Kabir Zahid’s name tops the list of accused. According to the complaint, in 2009, the published job circular stated that the ideal candidate should have an honors and masters degree, three years of work experience as a lecturer or a phd degree. But, Iqbal Kabir Zahid did not have any teaching experience or PhD degree from the university.

Moreover, his research experience was discontinued services. Without PhD degree or Postdoct, there is no opportunity to count discontinued research experience as an equivalent to teaching service at Jashore University of Science and Technology recruitment and promotion rule.

It is also known in the complaint, Dr. Iqbal worked at ICDDRB from 2003 to 2007. He lost his job in 2007. Later, in 2007, he registered for a PhD degree in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Dhaka, but later failed to continue the program. He was appointed as assistant professor in JSTU by showing his previous job and PhD studentship of Dhaka University.

In this regard, Professor Iqbal Kabir said, he applied according to the notification. Teaching and PhD degrees did not exist then. However, after seeing his six years (2003 to 2009) of research and published papers, the recruitment board of that time appointed him. Research is considered equivalent to teaching. As such, the authorities have appointed him.

On the other hand, Abdur Rauf, currently serving as Deputy Director of Planning and Development Department, was also appointed as Section Officer (Grade-1) of Planning and Development Department at the same time. But at that time no notification was published for that post.

According to sources, on April 23, 2009 Jashore University of Science and Technology published a notification for the appointment of 61 people for 28 posts. Abdur Rauf applied for the post of Assistant Director (Planning and Development) in the circular. But minimum five years of experience is required for this post. Abdur Rauf’s application was rejected by the screening committee formed by the university authorities due to lack of that experience.

However, although his application was rejected, he was given the post of Section Officer (Grade-1) in Planning and Development Department on the basis of that application. There was no recruitment notification against the post. Besides, the post of Section Officer (Grade-1) is an entry level post. The maximum age requirement for this post is 30 years. Although the application form submitted by him shows his age as 31 years 7 months 21 days.

In this regard, Abdur Rauf, Deputy Director of Planning and Development Department, said that my application for appointment was for the post of Assistant Director (Planning and Development). But my job is as Section Officer (Grade-1). How it happened, the recruitment board of that time can tell. However, he admitted that there was no notification for the post in which he was appointed.

JSTU vice chancellor professor Dr. Md. Anwar Hossain said, Professor Dr. Iqbal Kabir Zahid is a renowned researcher of the country. Not even a fraction of teachers in all the universities of the country have the amount of research he has at the national and international level. But only the then appointment board can say whether there was any irregularity at the time when he was appointed.

Regarding Abdur Rauf, the Vice-Chancellor said that he applied for the post of Assistant Director (Planning and Development) but was appointed to the post of Section Officer (Grade-1). Only the then recruitment board can say better about this. However, no discrepancy was found in the documents submitted by the two. So there is nothing to be done by the JSTU authorities in this regard. However, if the UGC or higher authority gives any instructions regarding them then it will be followed.