Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. PHOTO: INP
Shehbaz presided over a meeting with senior officials to review the situation. Those present at the meeting included provincial ministers Rana Sanaullah and Syed Raza Ali Gillani as well as the secretaries for law and higher education. Also in attendance was Punjab Higher Education Commission chairman and other officials concerned.
Shehbaz said the government had great regard for the court’s order on the appointment of vice chancellors.
The Lahore High Court has provisionally appointed vice-chancellors at three public-sector universities after removing their predecessors. It allowed one acting VC to continue in the position.
On November 14, an LHC single bench ordered the removal of acting vice-chancellors at these universities and directed the Punjab government to fill the posts within a month and according to the law.
A division bench, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, ordered the provisional appointment of Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed, Dr Mohammad Zubair and Dr Zafar Mueen Nasar as vice-chancellors of the University of Sargodha, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology, Multan and Punjab University, respectively. Dr Uzma Qureshi was allowed to continue as the vice-chancellor of Lahore College for Women University. However, the latter was removed just a day after this decision.
The court picked up these names from a list of nominees already finalised by a VCs search committee which was formed by the government. The judges allowed the VCs of seven other universities to continue till the petition was decided.
Those permitted to keep their offices are Dr Samina Amin Qadri of the Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi; Dr Hassan Amir Shah of Government College University, Lahore; Dr Rauf-e-Azam of the University of Education, Lahore; Dr Tahir Amir of Bahauddin Zakariya University of Multan; Dr Muhammad Khalique Ahmed of Ghazi University in Dera Ghazi Khan; Dr Talat Afzal of the Government Sadiq Degree College for Women University in Bahawalpur and Dr Athar Mahboob of the Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology in Rahim Yar Khan.
The court ruled that these VCs, who were appointed on August 27, 2015, shall continue in a provisional position till the disposal of the appeal.
These orders followed an appeal of the Punjab government, challenging the November 14 order of the LHC single bench.
The government submitted that the judgment was against the law and contended that the subject of education was devolved to the provinces after the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2016.
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