Propriety: LHC reserves verdict on PU selection board

The court had earlier issued an order stopping a board meeting.

Petitioners Sami Uzair and others had pleaded through their counsel Ahsan Bhoon that the university administration had thwarted the selection process since 2008. They said it had hastily called the latest selection board meeting because the vice chancellor’s wife Dr Shazia Qureshi had applied for the post of associate professor.

They said the last date for applications was in October 2013 but was extended twice and then reverted only to lend a hand to Dr Shazia Qureshi.

The petitioners said the posts had been advertised just to promote Dr Shazia during the tenure of her husband as vice chancellor.

The petitioners further stated that Dr Mujahid Kamran, after assuming the role of vice chancellor in January 2008, organised only one selection board in the University Law College despite the fact that there were several vacant posts and applications had been submitted in response to various advertisements.

The petitioner said the PU administration had granted Dr Shazia a handsome amount in an overseas scholarship contrary to the rules of the Higher Education Commission.

They claimed that the auditor general had objected to the spending and had directed the university to recover the amount.

They pointed out that that most of the research articles submitted by Dr Shazia had been published in the PU research journals having the VC as patron-in-chief.

The petitioners also said the PU authorities had advertised the posts of professor in law without specifying the exact number of vacant posts.

They requested the court to declare selection board meeting illegal.

They said the VC was acting outside his powers.

PU’s lawyer, however, stated that Dr Shazia Qureshi was not being promoted and only eligible candidates would be selected in the board’s meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2014.