LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has restrained the Punjab government from finalizing the process for the appointment of the vice chancellors in three public sector universities including University of Sahiwal, University of Sargodha and Emerson University of Multan.
The court directed a law officer to submit replies on behalf of the respondents till March 22.
The cort issued the retraied on a petition filed by Prof Dr Muhammad Ilyas Tariq, who is also a candidate for the appointment as vice chancellor.
Petitioner submitted that the government had not followed the SOPs regarding the appointment to the said posts as envisaged in a government’s notification issued in light of a direction by this court.
He submitted that the government was supposed to form a separate search committee for the appointment of the VCs in each university.
He submitted that a single search committee formed by the government had been carrying out the appointment process for all the three universities which was not justified.
He also challlenged the composition of the search committee saying no member from civil society, business community, industry, judiciary or ex-civil servant had been made part of it as envisaged in the SOPs notified by the government.
He pleaded the office of the chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) lying vacant and in the absence of a regular incumbent the search committee could not be fully operational.
He requested to set aside the impugned process for the appointment and order the government to constitute separate search committees for each university and that too comprising independent and qualified members.
