KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the chief secretary (CS), officials of the universities & boards department and other respondents in a petition impugning the selection process to appoint chairmen in various educational boards in the province.

Headed by Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam, a two-judge bench also put the advocate general Sindh on notice for March 7.

The petitioner, Altaf Ahmed Memon, also cited the search committee and eight candidates — retired bureaucrat Muhammad Misbah Tunio, Brigadier Syed Waseem Akthar, Dr Asif Ali Memon, Ghulam Hussain Soho, Mansoor Rajput, Musharraf Ali Rajput, Dr Rafiq Ahmed Chandio and Dr Zahid Ali Channar, who were shortlisted by the committee and their names forwarded to the chief minister for approval — as respondents in the petition.

Later Brigadier Akhtar, the top-scoring candidate for the appointment of chairman to one of the eight educational boards of Sindh, had withdrawn his name and thus a new summary was sent to the chief minister.

SPLA urges Bilawal to stop Sindh govt from appointing ‘inexperienced’ individuals

The counsel for the petitioner argued that the search committee could not select the candidates as it was only for selection and appointment of the vice chancellors for the universities.

Referring to an earlier judgement of the SHC handed down in the case of Mushtaq Ahmed Sangrasi verses the province of Sindh and others, he also contended that the summary dated Feb 3 mentioning eight names for such appointments placed before the chief minister Sindh, was not within the parameters of law.

He submitted that the SHC in its judgment had held that the role of the search committee was confined to appointment of the vice chancellors and could not be extended beyond its legal mandate.

The petitioner sought directives for the respondents to immediately halt and withdraw the appointment process of the chairmen in the Sindh educational boards through the search committee and to ensure that all future appointments to be made strictly in compliance with the relevant law and statutory provisions.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Professors & Lecturers Association (SPLA) have urged PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to stop the chief minister from experimenting with the educational boards as inexperienced individuals were being appointed as chairmen instead of educational experts.

SPLA president Munawar Abbas and secretary general Ghulam Mustafa Kaka in a statement also warned that such move would be strongly resisted and asked the PPP chief to take notice of anti-education policies of the chief minister.

They expressed serious resentment over the reported appointment of retired bureaucrats and former military officials as the heads of educational boards in the province.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2025