PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday stayed appointments against posts of assistant professors in Kohat University’s pharmacy department over a writ petition filed by one of the lecturers already teaching there.

A single-bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rasheed issued notice to the administration of Kohat University directing it to explain its position regarding the issue challenged by a lecturer of pharmacy department, Farmanullah.

Advocate Moazam Butt appeared for the petitioner and said that he had been serving as lecturer in the pharmacy department of the university in BPS-18 since 2008.

He said that recently the university’s administration published an advertisement for appointments against posts of assistant professors in BPS-19 under the tenure track system introduced by Higher Education Commission several years ago. He said that one of the conditions for candidates was that he or she must be a PhD.

Issues notice to administration to explain its position regarding the issue

Mr Butt contended that the petitioner, who had done PhD in microbiology, also applied for the said posts. He added that the selection board did not consider the candidate eligible for the post and put forward the reason that the required qualification was either M.Phil or PhD in pharmacy, whereas the petitioner was PhD in microbiology.

The counsel argued that microbiology was part of pharmacy and the decision of the selection board was illegal. He said that the selection board had selected two other teachers against the said posts who were much junior to the petitioner. He added that according to the said advertisement the lecturers already serving in the department had to be given preference for the posts, but the petitioner was rejected on flimsy ground.

After preliminary arguments the bench decided to stay the process of appointment and seek explanation from the administration.

BAIL GRANTED: A local court on Thursday granted bail to a travel agent arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on charges of possessing passports of other persons for purpose of human smuggling.

Advocate Arshad Khan Mohmand appeared for the applicant, Mohammad Hayat Durrani, and contended that the applicant was running a registered travelling agency in Mardan and was arrested few days ago by FIA on charges of possessing passports of other persons. He argued that the passports were present in the office in connection with provision of air tickets to the clients. He added that under the new rules of FIA a travelling agent could keep passports of his clients with him.

He contended that FIA could not prove that the applicant was involved in offences under the Immigration Act. He added that the applicant was never involved in any offence under the relevant law. He said that there was not a single piece of evidence with FIA to prove that the applicant had kept the passports for the purpose of human smuggling.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2016