Registrar appointment was not such easy any time before

According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), any appointment whether it is a teacher or university official must have a circular published in national dailies. The contestants will appear in a written examination and then the final candidate will be picked by the viva board.

However, Cox's Bazar International University may have a different account regarding the process as the acting vice chancellor of the university, Prof Abdul Hamid, appointed the registrar by issuing a single office order.

In the office order issued on June 3, the VC asked the teachers, employees and students to cooperate with the new registrar, Khandaker Ehsan Habib, who happens to be suspended by the Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University in 2018.

The appointment bypassing the book has flared up criticisms among students, teachers and guardians. They are questioning the morale of the trustee board over the "secret appointment" to a such vital post of a university.

In the meantime, many lambasted the decision to pick up Habib as the registrar, who was removed by a public university earlier in the wake of student protests triggered by his "disparaging comments".           

The incident came to the spotlight just after days as the university treasurer filed a case on June 2 against four, including a trustee board secretary, for embezzling nearly Tk3 crore from the university fund.

A controversial personality?

Habib was an assistant registrar of the Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University. In 2017, he posted several statuses on his Facebook wall which the university students protested terming abusive and derogatory for both the pupils and teachers.

In the wake of wildcat student protests, Habib was suspended in 2017 and later terminated as the university probe report found the allegations true.

For making derogatory Facebook comments against the prime minister and other political leaders, two police cases under the then ICT act were also filed with Mymensingh police station in 2017.

When contacted, Ehsan Habib agreed on termination from the public university. "But I went to the High Court challenging the university decision and the court is yet to give the final decision."

He also claimed that some local political leaders filed the ICT cases over personal enmity.

'A VC can make such emergency move'

Ehsan Habib claimed a vice chancellor can appoint someone on an emergency basis if he wants without following the UGC procedures.

He said he had been serving the university as a deputy registrar since February 2019. "Later, I was made the acting registrar. However, I quitted the post in February last.

"The VC and the trustee board know why they have appointed me as the registrar again," commented Habib.

The university VC was contacted several times over the phone for his comment on the appointment on Monday and Tuesday. He was sent text messages too, seeking his statement. However, he neither picked up the call, nor replied to any SMS.

The university trustee board Chairman Salahuddin Ahmed was also unreachable for any comment in this regard.