VCs appointment: LHC withdrew own verdict twice in three weeks

Partial withdrawals were made on appointment of four vice chancellors

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court partially withdrew one of its own orders twice in three weeks to make necessary changes into it.

The partial withdrawals were made in famous order in the matter of appointment of four vice chancellors of public universities of the province.

The bench headed by LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, hearing an intra-court appeal of the Punjab government against single bench’s order which had ordered to remove VCs of Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University Lahore, University of Sargodha, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology Multan, on December 19, 2016 had ordered the Punjab government to provisionally appoint VCs of three of these varsities other than the LCWU, after removing their predecessors.

The bench also put a question mark on the appointments of the VCs of other seven universities of the province and subjected their appointments with the outcome of the matter.

These vice chancellors are Dr Samina Amin Qadri of Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi, Dr Hassan Amir Shah of Government College University Lahore, Dr Rauf-i-Azam of University of Education Lahore, Dr Tahir Amir of Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Dr Muhammad Khalique Ahmed of Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan, Dr Talat Afzal of Government Sadiq Degree College for Women University Bahawalpur, and Dr Athar Mahboob of Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology Rahim Yar Khan.

On the very next day, December 20, the same bench made an amendment in its December 19 order by removing the VC of LCWU.

The bench observed that it was not brought to the notice of the bench during the hearing on December 19 that Dr Uzma Quraishi was already serving as VC of LCWU.

The court observed that in order to maintain consistency Dr Rukhsana Kausar would replace Dr Uzma Quraishi and appointed as provisional VC. The bench held that the name of Dr Rukhsana has also been recommended by the VCs search committee.

The bench on December 20, 2016 had reiterated that the VCs appointed in seven varsities have been appointed on the basis of recommendations of the search committee as well as competent authority shall also be treated as provisional and their appointments notifications shall remain subject to the final outcome of the instant intra court appeal.

On January 12, the bench again took up the matter and withdrew its own order to the extent of seven universities.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in its written order remarked: “Advocate General Punjab Shakilur Rehman Khan told the bench the matter of the seven universities was mistakenly made part of the proceedings in hand.”

At this the bench withdrew its order to the extent of the seven varsities and sought a detailed reply from the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2017.