SHC suspends appointment notification

Sindh High Court suspends notification for appointment of Dr Ghazala Siddiqui at the University of Karachi.

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday suspended a notification for the appointment of Dr Ghazala Siddiqui as the director of the Marine Biology Centre for Excellence at the University of Karachi (KU).

The bench, comprising Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Tufail H Ebrahim, earlier heard the counsel for petitioner Dr Pirzada Jamaluddin who was serving as the centre’s acting director.

The counsel, advocate Naeem Iqbal, questioned the appointment of Siddiqui, claiming that the respondent was not a qualified professor.

He added that the university’s vice-chancellor was also not consulted before the federal education ministry authorised the appointment.

Advocate Moin Azhar Siddiqui represented KU, one of the respondents in the case.

After listening to the initial arguments from both sides, the bench suspended the appointment notification and ordered that pre-admission notices be issued to the respondents for a date to be fixed later.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2010.