Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court directed the provincial law secretary, the chairman of Board of Governors for the city’s law colleges and Sindh Muslim Government Law College’s principal to file their respective replies to a petition challenging the criterion for the appointment of the law college’s principal.

A two-judge bench was hearing the petition filed by Advocate Fareed Ahmed Dayo, who approached the court against the board of governors for amending the rules regarding appointment of the college’s principal. Fareed, who has been teaching at the SM Law College for around14 years, submitted that the government had nationalized and taken control of educational institutions, including SM Law College, in 1927.

However, the college was privatized later on and the government promulgated Educational and Training Institutions Ordinance 1962 to establish Board of Governors to run institutions in 1983. He said that the college, being a beacon for dissemination of legal education, attracted students from all over the country, is an autonomous institution run by a board of governors.

“Under the chairmanship of Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the adviser to Sindh chief minister on law, the board held a meeting on May 3, 3016 and amended the criterion for the appointment of the law college’s principal, making room for appointment of an outsider as the principal while ignoring the senior faculty members.

The petitioner contended that earlier the high court had held that the principal should be from among the faculty members of college in the matters involving appointment of the principal of law colleges.