Senior professors: Half of all VCs in country past retirement age

SC to decide appeal against removal of UHS vice chancellor today.

LAHORE: Close to half the universities in the country have vice chancellors who were appointed after they passed retirement age, the counsel for the Higher Education Commission told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A four-member bench was hearing appeals against a Lahore High Court order removing Prof Malik Hussain Mubashar from the post of vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) because he was past the retirement age.

Advocate Amjad Bokhari, appearing for the HEC, told the court that the vice chancellors of 34 of the 72 public universities in the country were past the retirement age (60). Of the 34, he said, 19 had been appointed vice chancellor for more than one term. The vice chancellor of one university in Karachi is 89, he said.

Advocate General Ashtar Ausaf Ali submitted that the petitions against Prof Mubashar’s appointment were filed in the Lahore High Court by former UHS employees who had a personal grudge against the vice chancellor. He argued that the LHC had not applied the law properly.

“Under Pakistan Medical and Dental Council rules, the age limit of a professor for private medical universities is 70 while for public universities it stands at 60; however, the age of 70 will be considered for giving equal opportunity to all professors,” Ali said.

Nasir Mahmood Qureshi, counsel for the petitioner, rejected the advocate general’s reading of the rules, citing Section 47 of the UHS Ordinance 2002. “All officers and employees shall stand retired at the age of 60 years and the vice chancellor has been defined as an officer of the university,” he said.

The bench headed by Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jillani and including Justices Mian Saqib Nisar, Jawad S Khawaj and Muhammad Ather Saeed adjourned the hearing for final arguments for a day. The verdict will also likely be announced on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has allowed Prof Mubashar to stay on as vice chancellor till his and the Punjab government’s appeals against the LHC’s order are decided.