KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the vice chancellor of the University of Karachi (KU) and directed him to file comments on a contempt application for not complying with an earlier court order regarding promotion of a visually impaired teacher of Urdu Department.

A two-judge constitutional bench of the SHC headed by Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon also warned that the VC would have to appear in person if the comments were not filed by March 3.

Citing KU Vice Chancellor Prof Khalid Mehmood Iraqi as alleged contemnor, Assistant Professor Dr Muhammad Sajid Khan submitted in his application that he was serving as an assistant professor (BSP-19) at the university’s department of Urdu.

Visually impaired assistant professor alleges varsity admin failed to send his dossier to experts as per SHC’s earlier order

The applicant submitted that he had filed a petition before the SHC in 2023 and in October 2025 the high court had directed the university to consider his eligibility for promotion to the position of associate professor / professor (BPS-20/21).

He submitted that under the statutory procedure applicable to the university, his case for promotion “necessarily requires forwarding of his dossier to international experts, followed by placement before the selection board”.

He stated that despite lapse of considerable time after the SHC judgement and despite repeated verbal and written requests, the KU administration had deliberately failed and refused to send his dossier to international experts, rendering the SHC judgement “ineffective and meaningless”.

The bench took up the application for hearing and noted that the SHC in its Oct 7 judgement had ordered the university to consider Dr Sajid Khan for promotion.

The applicant’s counsel submitted that the selection board had already been convened and the minutes of the meeting were yet to be issued and thus, one post be reserved for the petitioner.

Adjourning the matter till March 3, the bench in its order said, “Let comments be called from the alleged contemnor to be filed on or before the next date of hearing, failing which the alleged contemnor shall appear in person.”

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2026