Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin is new VC of AMU

Aligarh: Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, head of the Bohra community in India, was on Saturday elected as the Aligarh Muslim University's new Chancellor.

Syedna was elected to the post, which was vacant for over five years, at a meeting of the Aligarh University Court here.

He secured 97 votes against 33 votes by Mehmoodur Rahman, a retired IAS officer who served as Union Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, on his last posting, an official spokesman of the University said today.

Under the AMU Constitution, the University's Chancellor is appointed through an elctoral process in which the members of the AMU Court, University's highest governing body, decides upon this matter.

Ibne Saeed Khan, the erstwhile nawab of Chhatari state, was unanimously selected as the University's Pro-Chancellor and Prof Habibur Rahman, former vice chancellor of Agra University was unanimously elected as the University's Honorary Treasurer.

The five members who were elected to the University's Executive Council by the Court include noted scientist Dr Shahid Jameel, well known educationist and vice president, Indian Council for Cultural Affairs, Dr S M Pathan, former Indian Hockey captain and noted Olympian Zafar Iqbal, retired bureaucrat Safdar H Khan and UP-based industrialist Khalid Masood.

The post of AMU's Chancellor has been lying vacant since January 2010 after the tenure of the then Chancellor Justice A M Ahmadi, the former Chief Justice of India, came to an end.