Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday expressed concern over the BNP government’s appointment of new vice chancellors at 11 public universities, alleging that the appointments were made on partisan grounds.

In a statement, Jamaat secretary general Mia Golam Porwar said people believe party loyalty and political considerations were given precedence over merit, impartiality and acceptability in the appointments.

“Introducing such a culture of partisanship in the country’s highest seats of learning is deeply alarming for the nation,” he said.

Porwar recalled that Jamaat had earlier issued a statement on March 15 expressing deep concern and strong protest over the appointment of party-backed administrators in 42 district councils.

“At that time, we said appointing administrators on partisan grounds instead of elected representatives was contrary to democratic values and an attempt to politicise local government. Unfortunately, instead of moving away from that undemocratic trend, the government is now extending it to the country’s higher educational institutions,” he said.

“Appointing people to administrative positions on partisan grounds creates divisions among teachers and disrupts the normal academic atmosphere for students. The people do not want to see a repeat of the instability, session backlogs and violence that once plagued the country’s education system due to politicisation,” Porwar said.

He called on the government to immediately reconsider the appointments and appoint acceptable, impartial and qualified individuals to the universities.