ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday set aside the appointment of vice chancellor of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast).

“Since respondent No. 5 [Dr S. Altaf Hussain, VC Fuuast] does not meet the criteria prescribed in the advertisement, he is not eligible to be appointed to the post of Vice Chancellor,” said an IHC division bench in its order on a petition filed by Prof Dr Hafiz Mohammad Iqbal.

Dr Iqbal filed an intra-court appeal against the March 26 judgement of an IHC single-bench which had dismissed his petition challenging the appointment of Dr Hussain as Fuuast VC.

He cited the president secretariat, establishment secretary, convener of the search committee Shahid Shafique, the federal education and professional training ministry, Dr Hussain, Dr Moeen­uddin Ahmad and registrar of Fuuast as respondents.

The appellant submitted that Fuuast Islamabad had advertised the post of vice chancellor and one of the conditions for the applicant was that he should fulfil the qualifying criteria for professors set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

His counsel stated that Dr Iqbal along with other candidates applied for the said post but Dr Hussain was selec­ted and appointed as VC.

He submitted that his client challenged the appointment on the grounds that candidate did not fulfil the criteria set by the HEC for appointment as professor and the professor must have had 15 research publications with at least five publications in the last five years in HEC-recognised journals.

However, the writ petition was dismissed by the judge-in-chamber, he added.

The bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Mohsin Akhtar Kayani had reserved the verdict on Oct 23 after hearing both sides.

In its detailed judgement pronounced on Tuesday, the bench observed that the position of Fuuast VC was provided in Section 11 of the Fuuast Ordinance, 2002. In sub-section I of Section 11, it was provided that the “vice chancellor of the university shall be an eminent academic or a distinguished administrator and shall be appointed in such terms and conditions as may be prescribed”, it said.

It stated that there was no requirement in the law that incumbent must have specific prescribed qualifications. However, in the advertisement published on Jan 14, 2018, it was specifically provided that the qualifying criteria for the professor set by the HEC shall be applicable to the candidate, the bench noted.

“At the relevant time, it was one of the conditions for a person to be appointed as professor that he must have 15 research publications with at least five publications in the last five years in HEC-recognised journals,” the judgement said.

“For the above-mentioned reasons, the instant appeal is allowed and the impugned judgement dated 26-03-2019 is set aside; consequently, the writ petition filed by the appellant is accepted,” declared the IHC.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2019