Daily Times

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi on Wednesday gave last chance to the vice chancellor of University of Health Science (UHS) to comply with earlier court order within ten days otherwise contempt of court proceedings would be initiated against him in addition to imposition of heavy fines.

Justice Qureshi in his order held that despite clear directions, the VC has not complied with the order issued to him on May 11, which was highly deplorable. Anyhow, he added, last opportunity is given to the respondent to comply with the order within ten days after receiving the certified copy of this order. “Otherwise not only contempt proceedings shall be initiated against him but he will also be burdened with heavy fines,” the judge held.

He issued the direction on a contempt of court application of Dr Qaisar Rasheed who had sought directions from the court for the VC to remove his concerns about the quality of research and teaching facilities at the university.

During the proceedings on May 11, petitioner’s counsel Ch Imran Arshad Naro at the very outset submitted that the petitioner has already moved tow applications before the VC before turning to the court.

The judge ordered the copy of this petition along with its annexure to be transmitted to respondent who shall look into the grievance of the petitioner. He gave 30 days time to the respondent for compliance of the order.

Earlier, petitioner counsel Ch Imran Arshad Naro submitted that the petitioner was a medical doctor by profession and an M.Sc in Medical Molecular Biology from the Univeristy of Westminister, London. He submitted that UHS Lahore published an advertisement on January 10 in all national dailies, inviting discipline-specific applications of various post-graduate subjects for prospective PhD candidates to appear in entry test.

He said on January 29, the petitioner applied for PhD admission through an application, adding that on February 16, after considering the application, the university registered the petitioner for entry test one hour before the test and issued roll number 1,404 to the petitioner, thereby allowing the petitioner to appear in the entry test for the subject of Immunology.

He submitted that on February 18, the university declared the result, showing that the petitioner was the only candidate who had secured at least 70 percent marks in the subject whereas other two candidate, Dr Muhammad Ashraf and Dr Muhammad Arslan Tayyab, could not pass the said entry test. He submitted that on March 12, the petitioner sent two letters carrying the subject, ‘PhD Admission-Immunology’, and ‘Research at the University of Health Sciences’, to the respondent and that after about one month, on April 10, the petitioner sent a reminder for the second letter to the respondent as well as the Punjab Higher Education Commission to which no response was received and the same were still lying pending for adjudication before the respondents.

The counsel submitted that every year from the public exchequer, the government entrusted the University of Health Sciences with million of rupees for higher education and research. However, the respondents no 3 and respondents no 5 are found guilty of scientific malpractices in the ambit of research misconduct and scientific fraud.

The counsel prayed that the writ petitions of the petitioner may be accepted and direction may be issued to the respondents to submit their comments to the petition. He prayed that the respondents be restrained from working due to the heavy loss their research malpractices until the satisfaction of the court through this petition. He further prayed that the respondents be punished for misguiding the public in general and the scientific community in particular through questionable publications and findings as well as for committing research misconduct and scientific fraud.