Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry, director of the UNESCO Chair in University of Karachi, has resigned

Karachi: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a subsidiary of the United Nations, has resigned from the position of Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry, the Director/Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in University of Karachi. Is.

This chair has been established in the University of Karachi International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) on the topic of medicinal and bio-organic natural product chemistry until 2027 and the former director of ICCBS Iqbal Chaudhry. He was its chairholder, but last September 2023, Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry resigned from the directorship of ICCBS on completion of his tenure, and Dr. Farzana Shaheen was given the charge of director of ICCBS.

Sources told “Express” that through an e-mail on April 8, the management of ICCBS contacted UNESCO to inform that Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry was no longer the head of ICCBS and have also retired from University of Karachi, so it is necessary that a serving professor/scientist should be made the director of the chair.

Under this email, UNESCO has removed Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry as the chairholder by taking the above action and in its email, UNESCO has written that the name of Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry has now been removed from the database of UNESCO Chair.

Meanwhile, names have been requested from the vice chancellor of University of Karachi for the director/chairholder of the UNESCO Chair. If no new nominations are received for the UNESCO Chair, then it will be assumed that Karachi University is no longer interested in holding the Chair.

It should be noted that earlier on the report of a three-member committee, Dr. Farzana Shaheen had stopped the further construction of the UNESCO Chair building established in University of Karachi and in this regard this position was taken by the current management of ICCBS. It was said that further construction was being done without approval from the authority for additional funds for which funds were also being demanded from ICCBS.

It should be noted that this UNESCO Chair is a “B” type, for which UNESCO does not give funds, but only the title is given, and the organization that gets the title of the chair is responsible for the arrangement of the fund.

It should be remembered that Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry has been working as the director of ICCBS since 2003 after the retirement of Dr. Attaur Rahman from University of Karachi and after his retirement in 2019, he was appointed as the director again for another four years. had gone.

According to the sources, due to the retirement of Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry, the University of Karachi administration is not interested in sending his name again for the UNESCO Chair.