Vice chancellor selection: Court reserves verdict after final arguments

Petitioners say candidates with foreign degrees preferred.

LAHORE:

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday reserved verdict on petitions against the appointments of the vice chancellors of six public universities and the search committee that identifies candidates, after the petitioners’ counsel concluded their arguments.

The petitions were filed by Dr Hassan Amir Shah of Government College University Lahore, Dr Bushra Khan of Lahore College for Women University and others.

In his arguments, lead counsel Anwar Kamal said that the search committee appeared to prefer candidates with qualifications from foreign universities than from local universities when selecting candidates for interview.

He said this would discourage people to get PhD degrees from local universities and ultimately minimise opportunities for those who studied in Pakistan. “If the government starts giving priority to foreign university qualifications, then only the rich will thrive in the country,” he said.

At this Justice Sheikh observed that local universities should meet international standards.

Additional Advocate General Muhammad Hanif Khatana highlighted the credentials of the search committee members, such as Syed Babar Ali and Sartaj Aziz, the pro chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences and the vice chancellor of Beaconhouse National University, respectively. He said the petitioners had failed to show any malice in the search committee.

Kamal argued that the petitioners had questioned the legal position of the search committee too.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2011.