PESHAWAR, Nov 16: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the director of the University of Peshawar’s Area Study Centre for explanation on first creating a BPS-22 post of ‘meritorious professor’ at the centre and then getting himself nominated to it by a committee of which he was part.

Director Dr Sarfaraz Khan was told by a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaiser to produce the said explanation within two weeks.

The directions were issued during the hearing into a petition filed by another professor of UoP Area Study Centre, Dr Pervez Iqbal Tareen, against the appointment of Dr Sarfaraz as the director at the centre and the subsequent announcement by him about the creation of the post of ‘meritorious professor’ and his nomination for it through a scrutiny committee.

The respondents in the petition are Dr Sarfaraz Khan, UoP vice chancellor and registrar, the secretary of the Higher Education Department and the provincial governor in his capacity as the chancellor of the university.

Qazi Mohammad Anwar, lawyer for the petitioner, said the petitioner and Dr Sarfaraz had been working in Grade 21at Area Study Centre but the petitioner was senior to Dr Sarfaraz.

He said on the retirement of the then director of the centre, the vice chancellor appointed Dr Sarfaraz to the post though he was junior to his client.

Mr Anwar said no post of the meritorious professor in Grade-22 in Area Study Centre had ever existed and Dr Sarfaraz misused the office of the director to ‘secretly’ recommend to the vice chancellor the creation of the said post.

He said in absence of any notification for the creation of the meritorious professor’s post, the director issued a notice on June 25, 2012 to invite applications from the professors of the centre for promotion to the said post.

The lawyer added that Dr Sarfaraz, who had invited applications, also applied for the post.

He said also in violation of the rules, the director convened a meeting of the scrutiny committee on July 13 in his office and that acting as a secretary of the committee and using his influence, he got himself selected to the said post.

Mr Anwar complained that the minutes of the said meeting were never made public.

He prayed the court to declare the appointment of Dr Sarfaraz as the director of the centre illegal, contending he was junior to his client. The lawyer also requested to declare the invitation of applications for the said post illegal.