Governor questions VC notification

Terms selection his prerogative as chancellor of govt varsities

LAHORE:

Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider has said that recent appointments by the provincial government of vice chancellors of public sector universities are in contravention of the law, announcing that his office would take cognisance of the illegality.

The issues had brought the provincial government and Governor Saleem Haider at loggerheads as both sides believed the appointments to be their prerogative.

The governor's assertion came after the Punjab Higher Education Department issued appointment letters of the VCs without formal approval from the governor who is the chancellor of all public sector universities in the province.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the governor objected to the appointments, declaring the notifications to be in contravention of law.

A technicality that the government exploited to circumvent the governor's stamp of approval was Article 105 of the constitution whereby the governors are bound to act on the advice of the government. The article lays 15 days as the initial time frame for the governor to return an advice with his recommendation, if any. The charters of the universities also bind the governor to act under the article

Sub-Section 5 of Article 105 gives the governors the power to act on their own discretion but the discretionary powers are limited to those granted in the constitution of Pakistan.

Governor Sardar Saleem Haider said he had primarily two objections, that the appointment process was not transparent and proper procedure as given in the law for the selection of VCs had not been followed.

He elaborated that the law requires the government via a search committee to forward three names in alphabetical order for each post of VC. Selection of the one candidate is the prerogative of the governor, he said.

He said that in this instance, one name for each university had been forwarded to his office. He said his office should not be mistaken for a post office.