RAWALPINDI: Justice Jawad Hassan of the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Friday ordered the Board of Governors of Lawrence College to appoint a regular principal.

Justice Hassan was hearing a petition seeking appointment of regular Principal of the college directed the newly constituted BoG to convene a meeting in a fortnight to make the appointment.

Further hearing in the case will be held after two weeks.

During the hearing, Punjab higher education secretary apprised the court that the previous board was dissolved being unlawfully constituted.

He said that the existing board was constituted after completing all legal formalities and approvals of the authorities concerned.

The matter was brought before the court by Senator Sadia Abbasi through Barrister Zafarullah Khan.

The previous BoG was reportedly constituted in 2022 and the then Punjab governor, Balighur Rehman, had appointed Senator Sadia Abbasi and Musharraf Rasool among others as board members.

The incumbent governor, however, removed the five members after they insisted on the appointment of a regular principal as the college was being run on an ad hoc basis for eight years.

Later on, a board comprising retired Lt-Gen Hamid Rabnawaz, retired Maj-Gen Owais Mushtaq, retired Rear Admiral Mian Zahir Shah, Sarfraz Bugti, Ikram Sehgal and others was reconstituted.

The new board reportedly issued an advertisement for the appointment of a new principal.

Earlier, Barrister Khan argued that the previous board members were removed in violation of the Punjab Educational Institutions (Reconstitution) Act, 2021.

He contended that under Section 7 (2) of the Act, board members were appointed for a fixed term of three years and could only be removed under specific conditions.

Furthermore, he claimed their removal was conducted without a fair hearing, contravening Section 7 (3) of the Act.

He emphasised that this lack of due process violated their constitutional rights under Articles 4 and 10-A, which guarantee treatment according to the law and the right to a fair trial.

Additional Advocate-General Malik Amjad Ali defended the decision, stating that the reconstitution of the board was carried out following Article 105 of the constitution, with the advice of the Punjab chief minister.

He argued that the initial appointments in 2023 were irregular and lacked proper legal backing.

The court highlighted the significance of procedural fairness and questioned whether the respondents had acted within the bounds of the law, especially regarding the alleged lack of consultation with the chief minister during the initial appointments.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2025