PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday declared illegal the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s move to reinitiate the process for appointing vice chancellors to 19 public sector universities in the province.

The ruling comes as a bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan accepted a petition jointly filed by Dr Aurangzeb Khan, a professor at the University of Science and Technology, Bannu, and four other senior academics, against the cabinet’s July 12 decision regarding non-appointment of the petitioners and the reconstitution of the academic search committee (ASC) for VCs’ appointments.

The petitioners also requested the court to strike down the impugned July 27 advertisement for the appointment of VCs to 19 public sector universities.

The bench pronounced a short order after hearing arguments from the counsel for both sides.

Detailed verdict on petition against govt move will be issued later

The detailed judgement will be issued later.

Advocates Aamir Javed, Mubashir Manzoor, Mohammad Tariq Afridi and Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel appeared for the petitioners whereas KP advocate general Shah Faisal Uthmankhel and additional attorney general Sanaullah Khan represented the provincial and federal government, respectively.

Lawyers for the petitioners said that the caretaker provincial government had approved the names of the petitioners for appointment as VCs of five public sector universities on the recommendation of the academic search committee (ACS).

They, however, said the present government, instead of forwarding their names to the KP governor the chancellor for appointment, re-advertised those posts on July 27 in an arbitrary manner.

AG Shah Faisal Uthmankhel opposed the petition contending that the caretaker government had overstepped its mandate while reconstituting the ASC when some of its members had resigned.

He argued that the caretaker had no powers to reconstitute the committee without approval of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

He contended that before the short-listing of the candidates and their interviews, members of the ASC had resigned.

Advocate Aamir Javed pointed out that most of the public sector universities had been without vice chancellors for the last around 18 months.

He said that the government decision to re-initiate the entire process would further delay these appointments. He added that the tenure of the ASC had already been completed in Feb 2024 and re-constituting the same and thereafter initiating the appointment process would further delay the matter.

When the bench inquired when the earlier advertisement for appointment of VCs was published, Mr Javed said the previous elected government had initiated the process and constituted the ASC through a notification on Feb 2, 2022.

He said the government issued an advertisement on Sept 1, 2022, for the appointment of VCs to 12 public sector universities.

The petitioners’ lawyers said after the dissolution of the provincial assembly, the caretaker government came into force on Jan 21, 2023, which approached the Election Commission of Pakistan for approval to the continuation of the selection process of VCs, initiated by the elected government.

They added that the ECP, through a letter on Feb 12, 2023, allowed the government to proceed with the appointment process.

The lawyers said the ECP also acceded to the request of the government on July 21, 2023, for appointing VCs to seven other universities.

They added that three members of the ASC later resigned and the caretaker government, in light of the urgency of the matter, filled the vacant positions on Dec 22 through a notification for a period until Feb 1, 2024, for continuing with the appointment process.

The lawyers argued that on the completion of interviews of shortlisted candidates, the ASC recommended a panel of three candidates, placed in the ‘order of merit,’ for each public sector university, which also included the names of the petitioners.

They added that the provincial cabinet gave approval for the appointment of VCs, including the petitioners on Jan 29, 2024.

The counsel pointed out that the secretary of the higher education department, instead of implementing the decision, placed the matter before the current provincial cabinet on July 12 for further review.

They added that the impugned minutes of the meeting issued on July 22 showed that the cabinet ‘regretted’ the appointment process, insisting that the academic search committee was reconstituted by the caretaker government without obtaining the mandatory “no objection certificate” from the ECP.

The lawyers said the cabinet instructed the higher education minister to immediately reconstitute the ASC to expedite the VCs appointment process.

The counsel added that all decisions taken by that committee for the VCs’ selection had attained finality and were protected under the law.

They added that the decision of scrapping the earlier cabinet decision didn’t have any “plausible reason and valid legal grounds.”

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024