LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday suspended the operation of an advertisement published in print media for inviting applications for the posts of associate professors (anaesthesia) in Punjab.

Justice Anwaar Hussain passed the stay order and also summoned para-wise comments from the provincial government to a petition jointly filed by aggrieved assistant professors of anaesthesia.

The petitioners include Dr. Faiqa Qurban of Gujranwala Medical College, Dr Syed Imranul Hassan of Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Dr. Sheikh Ziarat Ali of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Dr. Salman Athar Qureshi of Medical College Gujranwala.

The Punjab government through its chief secretary, the Punjab Public Service Commission and the secretary for specialised medical education have been made party to the petition, which mainly assailed the legality and justification of the advertisement prior to promoting assistant professors against their reserved quota.

Advocate Hafiz Tariq Nasim argued on behalf of the petitioners that the said assistant professors had to be promoted under two-third quota and that too before filling up the one-third quota through direct recruitment of the associate professors.

The counsel submitted that the impugned advertisement had offended and violated the standing instructions of the Punjab government itself. He said all the four petitioners/assistant professors (anaesthesia) were eligible for promotion as associate professors (BS-19) as per the Punjab Health Department (Medical and Dental Teaching Posts) Service Rules 1979.

He said the case in hand was related to the fundamental rights of the petitioners.

After hearing the arguments of the counsel, the judge suspended the impugned advertisement and issued notice to the government for submission of the comments within a fortnight.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2023