LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) sought on Monday a reply from the Punjab government and the secretary to the Higher Education Department (HED) on a petition challenging composition of a single search committee for appointment of vice chancellors (VCs) of 12 public universities in the province.

At the outset of the hearing, petitioner’s counsel Rana Asadullah Khan stated before the court that the government miserably failed to follow parameters established in Supreme Court judgments for selection of members of a search committee.

He argued that the government also violated guidelines forwarded by the HED and Provincial Higher Education Commission for selection process of the members of the search committee in which they have categorically admitted to form a separate and independent search committee for each and every university of the province.

The counsel contended the fixed tenure of the impugned search committee for two years was implausible as well and against the past practice as the search committees constituted for specific university automatically dissolved after the selection process.

He also alleged that respondent Dr Khalid Aftab had been appointed as convener of the search committee being closely related to Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The counsel asked the court to set aside the notification of the impugned search committee for being illegal direct the government to constitute independent search committees for selection of VCs for each public sectors university.

Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabbir heard the arguments and sought reply from the respondent within two weeks.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2019