HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court on Friday stayed till Tuesday (Oct 10) issuance of a notification pertaining to the appointment of Prof Dr Bikha Ram as the vice chancellor of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS).

The court passed the order at its principal seat while hearing a constitutional petition filed by Prof Dr Abdul Razaq Shaikh, who challenged the chief minister’s recommendation for Prof Ram’s appointment. Prof Shaikh was among three short-listed candidates who were recommended for the post by a search committee.

Prof Shaikh is the dean surgery at LUMHS. Represented in court by Advocate Hyder Waheed, Prof Shaikh has stated that the respondent chief minister has not given any reasoning while recommending name of Prof Ram to the Sindh governor, who is the chancellor of public sector universities in Sindh, for the post.

He said he felt aggrieved beca­use his score was higher than that of Prof Ram during an evaluation done by the search committee, headed by retired Justice Deedar Hussain Shah.

Dr Ram’s counsel Advocate Haq Nawaz Talpur has submitted in court that Prof Shaikh is going to retire within a couple of months and that’s why the CM recommended Dr Ram’s name. He said that another candidate, Prof Akbar Nizamani, was also a retired professor. He cited an apex court ruling that retired persons should not be re-hired.

Advocate Talpur, speaking to Dawn quoted the bench, comprising Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Adnan Karim Memon, as saying that if the CM had taken this position, then the reasoning should be brought on record.

He said that court also wanted to see the marks obtained by each candidate during the search committee’s evaluation.

He said that initially the case was adjourned to Oct 10 but then it was decided that the date would be fixed with consent of the other side.

Prof Shaikh told Dawn that he maintained in court that the CM did not exercise his discretion properly and also did not give reasoning for such recommendation in favour of Prof Ram.

Prof Ram’s name was recommended for the post by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in the second week of September. The CM interviewed three candidates — Dr Abdul Razaq Shaikh, Dr Akbar Nizamani and Prof Dr Bikha Ram — before forwarding Prof Ram’s name to the governor.

The other members of the search committee headed by Justice Shah were former Sindh University vice chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, former senior member Board of Revenue Anwar Hyder, Prof Younus Soomro, Prof Iqbal Memon and Naveed Sheikh (secretary universities and boards).

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2017