LAHORE: The Punjab health department has scrapped the selection process for the appointment of new vice chancellors (VCs) of the five public medical universities and initiated a new summary, requesting the government to increase the maximum age limit of the candidates to 75 years to ‘accommodate the elderly candidates’ for these top slots.

Presently, the upper age limit for the VC post is 65 years in all public sector universities in Punjab. Even, the criteria for the selection of chairperson of the Higher Education Commission Pakistan has the maximum age limit of 65 years.

An official privy to the development says the move came at a time when some 46 candidates, mostly the serving senior doctors, applied for the slots of the VCs of five medical universities in response to the advertisement by the government. The last date of the applications for the positions was May 6.

All the candidates, including those presently serving as VCs of these universities, are waiting for the secruitiny process of their applications by the selection committee formed by the government under the supervision of Specialized Healthcare Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique. Ex-Punjab chief secretary retired Capt Zahid Saeed, former bureaucrat Farkhanda Wasim Afzal, serving as chairperson of the board of governors (BoG) of the University of Health Sciences, and a senior representative from a private university are also members of the committee.

Minister rejects allegations, says move is aimed at improving functioning of varsities

The official says that the move for relaxation in age limit, that too by 10 years, has created a widespread resentment among the medical fraternity, especially the serving candidates, when they got to know that a majority (80pc) of them may lose the race.

The official says the proposal is aimed at facilitating the ‘elderly candidates’, especially those who have already retired and are going to retire soon while serving as VCs of the five medical universities or have served in the past as VCs or on other top administrative positions like those of principal. He adds that there are also some reports that a powerful candidate from the north Punjab is the key person who pushed the health authorities to go for the change in the age limit in order to enjoy his third term as the VC of a public sector university.

The official says that the health department wants the Punjab government to increase the age limit to 75 through the promulgation of an ordinance to give it a legal protection.

To a question, he says that the terms of the serving VCs of the five medical universities of Punjab would complete by July 2026. They include UHS VC Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathor, King Edward Medical University VC Mahmood Ayaz, Fatima Jinnah Medical University VC Prof Khalid Masood Gondal, Rawalpindi Medical University VC Dr Mohammad Umar and Faisalabad Medical University Prof Zafar Chaudhry. Of them, Prof Umar, Prof Zafar Chaudhry and Prof Gondal are contesting for the third term while UHS and KEMU VCs are in the contest to retain their second time.

“Yes we have initiated a proposal to increase the maximum age limit from 65 to 75 for the selection of the new VCs of five medical universities,” Khawaja Salman Rafique confirmed while speaking to Dawn. He says the objective of the move is to get services of the highly experienced medical teachers to improve the functioning of the medical universities.

The health minister rejects the allegations of favouring any individual/individuals by changing the age limit, saying that the experienced candidates, particularly those who have served against the top administrative positions of the under and postgraduate teaching institutions, can better deliver to standardise the medical education and research than others.

Talking about the international best practices, another senior medical teacher says that a research on university leadership in the UK, US, Australia, and Europe generally finds average age at appointment approximately 61-64 years while average age during service approximately 62-65 years.

He argues that at institutions such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the person appointed is most often around 58–64 years old, after decades of academic, research, and administrative leadership experience.

“If somebody has not brought a change in four or eight year of his tenure as VC, how do you expect him to bring about a change when he is in his 70s?,” the teacher asks.

He says that the authorities should avoid changing the rules to favour any particular individual/s.

“This is a need of the hour to prevent further litigation in selection of VCs of medical universities of Punjab and prevent our medical institutions from a further deterioration by increasing the age limit of vice chancellors from a world standard of 65 years,” the official says.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026