LAHORE: Punjab University Additional Registrar Dr Kamran Abid in response to the letter of PU College of Information Technology (PUCIT) Principal Dr Mansoor Sarwar, said that Dr Mujahid Kamran can exercise all the powers vested to him as vice chancellor under the law. In his letter, Dr Kamran Abid said it is pertinent to point out that Dr Sarwar had written a similar letter asking the vice chancellor not to hold a meeting on the same grounds, referring to Supreme Court decisions. He said that these are irrelevant to the present situation in PU. Dr Abid has also sent a detailed letter from legal adviser Taimur Khan in this regard. He stated it is relevant to note that the authorities referred to above are distinguishable and are not applicable in the present case. In the letter of the legal adviser, it was said that as per PLD 2013 SC 244; Hamid Mir and another vs Federation of Pakistan, a constitutional petition was filed under Article 184(3) concerning the accountability of the media and the determination of its code of conduct. “One of the questions in this issue was related to whether the acts of the PEMRA acting chairman would stand saved under the de-facto doctrine. The Supreme Court came out negatively on the basis that (i) the acting chairman of PEMRA had not been appointed as the notification merely stipulated that ‘he would look after the work of chairman’ and (ii) that the PEMRA ordinance does not provide for the position of the acting chairman,” the letter added. In the present case, he legal adviser said, firstly, Section 14(9) of the act expressly provides for the appointment of an acting vice chancellor, whose provision was absent in the above case and secondly, the language employed in the notification dated January 21 for appointment of acting vice chancellor, also referred to in his letter, stipulates “look after charge of the post of vice chancellor….”. As such, the notification differs completely from the above case as it provides for looking after the charge of the post of vice chancellor and not to merely look after the work of chairman, it said. “In the constitutional petition of 2013 SCMR 1205; Khawaja Muhammad Asif vs Federation of Pakistan, the appointments, postings and transfers made by a the caretaker government were called in question on the basis that their role/duty under the Constitution of Pakistan was limited to facilitating the Election Commission of Pakistan in holding free and fair elections,” the letter stated. The legal adviser said it is to be noted that the position of care-taker government is completely different from that of position of an acting vice chancellor who has to make sure that the academic activities remain wholesome and do not suffer from any infirmity with regard to administration, teaching staff or the students.