PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government a 10 days’ time to implement its orders for appointing vice chancellors to 19 public sector universities in the province.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah told the provincial advocate general that as the high court’s Aug 22 judgement on the matter was still “in the field,” so it should be implemented.

It observed that those universities were suffering due to VC vacancies, with several struggling to pay salary to employees due to financial constraints.

The orders were issued during a hearing into a contempt petition filed by Dr Aurangzeb Khan, a professor at the University of Science and Technology, Bannu, and four other senior academicians, with a request to prosecute and punish the respondents, including chief secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry and the secretaries of higher education, law, and establishment departments.

Petitioners seek contempt action against chief secy, other respondents

The petitioners earlier filed a plea against the provincial government’s move to reinitiate the process for appointing VCs to 19 public sector universities in the province. They had challenged the provincial cabinet’s July 12 decision regarding non-appointment of the petitioners as VCs and the reconstitution of the academic search committee (ASC) for VCs’ appointments. The petitioners had also requested the court to strike down the impugned July 27 advertisement for the appointment of VCs to the 19 public sector universities.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan had allowed that petition on Aug 22, declaring: “The process of re-advertising the position of VCs of government universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is struck down. The respondents are directed to place the recommendations made by the academic search committee before the worthy Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for approval in accordance with Section 12 of the Act (KP Universities Act), 2012.”

Senior lawyer Aamir Javed appeared for the petitioners and stated that the contemnor respondents despite the lapse of over three months now had willfully defied the judgement so passed in favour of the petitioners and were hell bent to defy and ignore the binding edict of the high court.

When the bench took up the petition for hearing, an additional advocate general informed it that the provincial government had moved a summary for the implementation of the court’s orders but challenged it in the Supreme Court at the same time.

Justice Asadullah wondered whether the government intended not to implement the order and appoint VCs for which it had moved the apex court.

The AAG said the chief minister and education minister were not present in Peshawar due to which the matter got delayed.

The bench took a recess and summoned the secretary of the higher education department, who later showed up along with advocate general Shah Faisal Uthmankhel.

Mr Uthmankhel said that the cabinet had taken decision to re-advertise the appointment process, which was set aside by the high court.

He added that the recommendations of the academic search committee would be sent to the chief minister and after its approval would be sent to the chancellor.

The advocate general said that prior to the last general elections, the caretaker chief minister signed the summary but didn’t send it to the chancellor.

He added that the government also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Justice Attique Shah observed that unless the apex court issued any stay order, the judgement of the high court was in the field and should be implemented.

He added that as soon as a stay order was issued, the high court would stop its proceedings in the case.

When the bench inquired how many days the government needed to implement the judgement, the AG called for a 14 days’ time.

However, the bench observed that 19 universities didn’t have VCs, so 14 days were a lot of time. It later asked the government to appoint VCs in the next 10 days.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2024