Daily Times

LAHORE: Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Wednesday stayed the process for appointment of the vice chancellor (VC) of Faisalabad Agriculture University. The chief justice also sought reply from Higher Education Commission and others till December 10 and other respondents on petition Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa. Petitioner counsel Ahsan Bhoon said that Dr Sarwar had filed a petition challenging an advertisement published in the print media on August 22, 2016 for the appointment of VCs in agriculture universities in Punjab that was pending before the LHC. He said that during the pendency of the plea, a division bench of the court headed by the chief justice gave the judgment, setting criteria for the VCs appointment in Punjab. He submitted that the search committee formed for VC appointment, as per the court’s directions, was supposed to also invite applications from overseas candidates but it was not done. He pointed out that the search committee started the appointment process on the basis of last year advertisement and criteria different from other universities. He submitted that the criteria laid down by the LHC were meant for all universities. He alleged that the criteria adopted by the search committee was person specific and to accommodate a former vice chancellor of this university. He requested to stop the appointment process and direct the authorities to initiate fresh process in light of the criteria laid down by LHC. The Punjab government counsel in reply said that the post was advertised and 59 candidates were interviewed which summary had already been sent to Punjab chief minister. He said that a stay at this time would not be appropriate and it would further delay the appointment.

Published in Daily Times, December 7^th 2017.