Muslehuddin Trust Fund, the Rector Scholarship and now IIUI Scholarships: A continuation of same sorry tale?

Muslehuddin Trust Fund, the Rector Scholarship and now IIUI Scholarships: A continuation of same sorry tale?

We have already shared a news from iiu.edu.pk on this blog regarding the announcement of 29 HEC sponsored PhD scholarships in selected fields. This is definitely a welcome move given the impression that IIUI was somehow lagging behind in hunting HEC sponsored scholarships. Though many IIUI students and some faculty members are already pursuing research studies in various countries under HEC’s open merit scholarship program but the need was felt to negotiate a comprehensive scholarship program with HEC especially for IIUI faculty development and capacity building. Several public sectors universities are already undertaking such programs and this funding for IIUI is marvellous by all standards. Our thanks to all who dedicated their times and efforts in this regard!

Being an “old” IIUI fellow now, this recalls me the state of affairs before few years when young, exited, energetic and ambitious faculty members were desperately looking for funding opportunities to accomplish their PhD projects but virtually not a single prospect was there within IIUI. Whenever the matter was raised and needs were identified, people were reminded about the history of faculty members’ cheat and deception. Yes, I am referring to the same IIUI fairytale: the sad demise of Muslehuddin Trust Fund and the Rector Scholarship. My generation of Islamians does not know much about the Muslehuddin Trust and by the time we reached there, accounts were desiccated with beneficiaries flown and ledgers closed!! We have been told that some very promising, shining and intelligent people came, won the grants, left for different destinations and finally they never came back—at least to IIUI. There can be some exceptions as usual but by the end of the day given the lack of resources, the Trust’s scholarships program was abandoned. This was a generational tribute to a legendary scholar of Islamic Law: Dr. Muslehuddin.

In a relatively short span of time, the history was repeated again in the corridors of IIUI. With precisely the same plot and shooting locations, the victims were again IIUI faculty members who really wanted to undertake PhD projects with no funding available from their institutions. Once again, some very shining, high spirited and deeply motivated souls came, got the scholarships from the Rector Funds, secured their degrees (and in some cases even did not bother to do that or secured degree in disciplines their than their designates area of specialization) and finally they never came back!! Of course, exceptions were there as usual but the Fund was not left with adequate surplus to support further foreign scholarships. This was the tribute of our generation Malik Miraj Khalid.

Since then the talk of scholarship became a taboo at IIUI. I still recall that how Dr. Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi-our then President- used to tell us that there was no funding as some “cheaters” had managed to be our predecessors! Most of them could not come back on account all sort of reasons ranging from opportunity costs to IIUI’s poor internal working environment and academic culture. Perhaps we should not get into merits of their arguments here and let them make their own case if they are at all willing. From IIUI perspective it is important to analyse this situation for the sake of institutional integrity and future planning. Most of the scholarships given under the aforementioned two programs were sort of hand picked choices. In the absence of a transparent, merit based and consultative robust process, if you would award a scholarship then the subsequent generations must not share the burden of others’ guilt. We would always insist that all “cheaters” should be categorically named and shamed along with those who were responsible for secretive and non transparent allocations and the onus of proof is conspicuously two way in this regard. But for sure, it should not have any negative implications for future generations as it used to be.

What’s the morale of this story for our new HEC sponsored scholarships program should not be a missing link by now. If we-at IIUI- can learn some lessons from our previous failures by following a merit-based, equitable and transparent award mechanism then no one would be writing a third sorry tale for our next generations. We wish that history may not repeat itself this time but the onus here rests solely on current bosses.