LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday warned Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and other government functionaries of serious consequences for purposely delaying implementation of a judgement about the appointment of the vice chancellor of University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).

On the previous hearing, Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi had given the last opportunity to a provincial law officer with the direction to submit a compliance report or the chief minister and others would be summoned for defiance of the order.

However, the law officer during Monday’s hearing once again sought time for the implementation of the decision, saying the process for the appointment of the vice chancellor had been started and required at least a week for its completion.

Justice Sethi expressed serious dismay over the law officer’s conduct and observed that the government had been delaying the implementation of the judgement with mala fide intention to achieve political motives.

“Why are you forcing the court to summon the chief minister right now?” the judge asked the law officer and reminded him that there must be no misconception that the court would hesitate to summon the chief minister.

On a short notice, the implementation and coordination secretary appeared before the court and said the chief minister office had received the summary for the appointment a day before. He said a week or so would be required to send an advice to the chancellor/governor.

However, Justice Sethi turned down the request for a week-long adjournment and directed the government to submit a compliance report on Oct 14 or face consequences.

The judge cautioned the law officer that even a minute-long conviction would entail serious consequences for the public office-holders.

Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan had filed the contempt petition through Advocate Bilal Hassan Minto pleading that a single bench had on Feb 4 set aside the appointment of Dr Muhammad Ashraf as the vice chancellor of the university with a direction to the government to notify the candidate on the top of the merit list strictly in accordance with law.

The counsel said a division bench later set aside the single bench’s decision and the matter went to the Supreme Court. However, he said, the apex court suspended the judgement of the division bench and the decision of the single bench stood restored.

He argued that the respondents, including the chief minister, failed to initiate the process for the appointment of a new VC of the university in terms of the single bench’s judgement. The act of the respondents amounted to contempt of court, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020