LAHORE: Justice Sheikh Ahmed Farooq has summoned Professor Mujahid Kamran for January 13 on a petition challenging his appointment as acting vice chancellor of Punjab University after his retirement as vice chancellor on January 2.
The court also issued notice to the Higher Education Department secretary and the principal secretary to the chief minister, asking them to explain under what law they appointed Prof Kamran as acting vice chancellor. The court was hearing a civil miscellaneous application filed by Prof Mugheesuddin Sheikh, who is dean of the Superior Group of Colleges and a candidate for the post of PU vice chancellor, in his main petition seeking a restraining order against any stopgap arrangement to keep Prof Kamran in the vice chancellor’s officer after his retirement.
Prof Sheikh appeared before the court on Monday. He submitted that Prof Kamran was appointed for four years under Section 14 of the Punjab University Act and according to that law, the vice chancellor could not be granted an extension or permitted to serve in an interim capacity. He said the Supreme Court had declared the grant of extensions after retirement to be illegal. The petitioner said he had filed his petition a day before the vice chancellor’s retirement date of January 2 seeking a restraining order against his extension because he had heard that the government was planning to make him acting vice chancellor.
On that petition, Justice Farooq had on January 1 issued notices to the Higher Education Department secretary and other respondents, but the notification of Prof Kamran’s appointment in an acting capacity was still made. He asked the court to issue directions to stop Prof Kamran from continuing as vice chancellor.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 10th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ