PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has stopped the public sector Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University(SBBWU), Peshawar, from issuing the final appointment order for the post of the deputy director planning and development until next order.

It, however, directed the university to continue with the recruitment process for the post.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed M Attique Shah and Justice Syed Arshad Ali also directed the university to call a petitioner for interview to fill that post.

It fixed Oct 7 for the next hearing into a petition filed by candidate Mohammad Asad Jan, who feared that the university was planning to fill that post arbitrarily by appointing its favourite candidate to it, while other candidates had been kept in the dark about the recruitment process.

Asks SBBWU to continue with recruitment process

The bench asked the university’s high-up, including vice-chancellor, registrar and deputy registrar, to file their comments on the petition before the next hearing.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the university to fill the post ‘strictly on merit’ and call him for the interview.

The respondents in the petition are the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University’s chancellor, vice-chancellor, registrar and deputy registrar.

Mukhtar Ahmad Maneri, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client held degrees of MS in Management Sciences, MSc in Economics and MBA in Banking and Finance, and possessed experience of financial management, audit, and planning and development.

He added that currently, the petitioner worked as the manager (finance and P&D) at the National Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar.

The counsel said last year, the university had announcement recruitment for different posts, including that of deputy director (P&D) in BPS-18 and his client applied for it and qualified. He, however, said his client wasn’t called for interview by the selection board expected on July 14, 2021.

The lawyer said the petitioner called the relevant university staff members, who informed him that the post was not included in those to be considered by the selection board.

He added that his client called the university staff members on July 28 to know about shortlisting of his name for the expected interview but he was informed that his experience was not relevant for the post.

The counsel said his client later sent an appeal to the university through a courier service with all relevant documents showing his experience, but there came no reply.

He contended that when all efforts of his clients went to waste, he filed a complaint with the Prime Minister Citizen Portal as he learned through some news items about irregularities in the appointment process.

Mr Mukhtar added that in reply to the said complaint, the university had claimed that the appointment to the post in question was still in process but declared that an employee of the university working in BPS-14 was also a candidate and was eligible for the post.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2021