KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to provincial and federal authorities on a petition filed against the appointment of Dr Khalid Mehmood Iraqi as the vice chancellor of the University of Karachi.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro put the respondents and the federal and provincial law officers on notice for Feb 15.

Former dean, faculty of social sciences at KU, Prof Moonis Ahmar, through his counsel Haider Waheed and Shahzeb Akhtar Khan, petitioned the SHC impugning the July 28 notification regarding the appointment of Dr Iraqi as VC of KU.

The petitioner cited the province of Sindh through chief minister, universities & board secretary, Higher Education Commission (HEC), KU through its registrar, search committee and Dr Iraqi as respondents.

He submitted that currently, he was a retired meritorious professor (BPS 22) and served for over 35 years in KU and also an aspiring candidate for the post of VC.

SHC asked to direct CM, search committee to furnish reasons as to why they bypassed merit

The petitioner’s counsel argued that as per the advertisement of June 29, 2019, the candidates were required to have at least 25 HEC recognised research publications by July 15, 2019 and Dr Iraqi did not possess the requisite 25 research publications as on the cut-off date.

They further submitted that the search committee had taken into consideration certain research publications of Dr Iraqi published after the cut-off date and such ground alone disentitled him from the VC appointment.

The lawyers contended that Dr Iraqi was illegally appointed as VC in violation of set precedents and procedure and before such appointment he had also illegally held the charge of acting VC for over three years.

They argued that during such period Dr Iraqi had illegally kept the charge of acting VC and engineered circumstances which delayed the appointment of the VC.

The counsel stated that the previous VC Dr Ajmal Khan had passed away on May 4, 2019 and the very next day a summary was initiated by the secretary of the universities & board department to the CM recommending Prof Dr Jamil Kazmi, who was at number seven on the seniority list, for the acting VC appointment.

They said that the summary was returned with the observation to put up panel of three senior most professors. But, on May 15 the CM and the universities & board secretary had appointed Dr Iraqi, who was at number 28 on the seniority last, acting VC of KU till the appointment of a regular VC to be made through the search committee, they maintained.

The counsel maintained that the earlier search committee was dissolved in the light of the SHC’s Jan 1, 2022 order, but the new committee constituted in pursuance of the Constitution of Search Committees Act, 2022, once again consisted of the members who had conflict of interest and were partial and favourable towards Dr Iraqi.

They argued that the summary/recommendations of the search committee was placed before the chief minister and thus he might also be directed to place in court details as to why Dr Iraqi was selected despite having “questionable credentials and lacking requisite qualifications” to the utter detriment of the petitioner and other deserving candidates.

The lawyers contended that as per their client’s information he was second in ranking / grading of the search committee for the post of KU VC.

They maintained that as per the judgement of the apex court in the case of Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan, the CM was bound to furnish reasons if a candidate who was placed on a lower footing was appointed.

They further submitted that committee may also be directed to furnish the reasons as to why it bypassed merit and ignored deserving candidature.

They pleaded to set aside the impugned notification and direct the chief minister to notify the petitioner as the VC since he was placed second in line after Dr Iraqi in the recommendations of the search committee.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2023