Talking to The Express Tribune, HEC Spokesperson Ayesha Ikram said the commission was communicating with the Punjab HED and will follow orders of the LHC. The court directed the commission to create search committees for the appointment of four VCs.
“We are in contact with the Punjab HED and are deliberating over the process to form search committees for each university. The HEC had originally created the appointment process which will now be re-implemented according to LHC orders,” Ikram said.
Meanwhile, according to sources in the HED, an intra-court appeal will be filed to challenge the decision of the LHC which declared the process of appointing VCs by the department as illegal.
Separately, Punjab University Vice Chancellor Mujahid Kamran, who had been removed by the court and would be ineligible for the VC slot if it was re-advertised, is also filing an appeal challenging the court decision.
The move will, however, further delay the appointment of permanent VCs at the four universities. The Punjab University has been functioning without a permanent VC since January 2016 after his term expired. He was subsequently appointed on an acting charge.
The position of VCs at Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering & Technology Multan, University of Sargodha and the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) had been advertised in 2015, but the appointments could not be made.
The LHC also ordered the removal of acting VCs of four universities, which included Dr Mujahid Karman of Punjab University, Dr Sara Shahid of Lahore College for Women University, Dr Nazir Sultana of Sargodha University and Dr Fazal Ahmed of UET Lahore. The latter was also serving on an additional charge at the Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering & Technology, Multan.
The court also ordered the appointment of the senior-most professor for the interim period until an appointment was made. “During the interregnum while the process for the appointment of the vice chancellors is being undertaken, the most senior professor in terms of length of service shall be appointed by the Government of the Punjab as vice chancellor for the public-sector universities in respect of whom the appointments have to be made,” the court order read.
“The notification to this effect shall be issued within a period of seven days from the receipt of the order of this court.
This shall apply to the universities in which the tenure of the vice chancellors has come to an end and the vice chancellors are continuing in office on an acting-charge basis under the directives of the chancellor,” it continued.
However, acting vice chancellors are still working on their posts as they have yet to receive a written order from the HED for their removal.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 12th, 2016.
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