Tug of war: Sindh varsity VC gets two-week extension

Lawyer argues that the governor has no authority to appoint the VCs.

HYDERABAD: The Sindh University’s (SU) vice-chancellor Dr Nazir Mughal, who completed his second tenure in office on January 8, 2014, was given a two-week extension by the Sindh High Court on Thursday.

Mughal had filed a petition challenging the advertisement for the appointment of a new VC and the search committee for calling the interviews. The VC’s counsel, advocate Jhamat Jethanand, told the bench of Justice Nadeem Akhtar and Justice Shahnawaz Tariq that the governor had given two years extension in service to the VC last August.

The Sindh Universities (Amendment) Act, 2013, which was passed by the provincial assembly on August 19, a few days after the VC was given the extension, bars the VCs from serving for a third term. Subsequently, through an advertisement on October 31, 2013, the provincial government called for applications for the VC posts at five public sector universities, including the SU. The search committee is yet to interview applicants for the post of SU’s VC. The SHC Hyderabad circuit bench will hear the case on January 30.

The bench also allowed a social activist, Moula Bux, who had filed a petition against Mughal’s appointment for his second term two years ago, to become a party in the case. Bux’s lawyer, Advocate Zameer Ghumro, told the court that he will argue against the VC’s second-term appointment as well as his extension.

The additional advocate-general, Allah Bachayo Soomro, said, “The present situation has created an administrative crisis in the university.” Soomro, who submitted the reply of the chief secretary representing the Sindh government, told the court that after the 18th constitutional amendment and the subsequent August 2013 amendment, only the chief minister is responsible for appointing the VCs.

“The governor no longer has the authority over the higher education institutions in light of the Sindh Universities (Amendment) Act, 2013,” he argued. The bench ordered the search committee and the governor to submit reply on the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2014.