The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notice to Advocate General Punjab (AGP) for June 7 on six identical petitions challenging the selection criteria and procedure of appointment of Vice Chancellors (VCs) in six public sector universities.Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh passed the order on petitions of Dr Hassan Amir Shah, professor of physics in Government College University, Lahore and five others.Until Friday last, Justice Ijazul Ahsan was hearing this case when he excused himself from hearing the matter saying, “I should not hear the matter as I am also part of the Syndicate of the UET VC Gen Akram (one of the members of the Search Committee) along with Chaudhary Akram (Additional Secretary Education).” He thus referred the case to LHC CJ who later fixed it before Justice Nasir Saeed.Shah through his counsel Anwar Kamal assailed the constitution of the Search Committee, contending that there were no rules, regulations and guidelines for selection and appointment of its members and thus the committee lacked legal basis for selecting VCs for public universities.The petitioner pointed out that none of the members of the committee had a PhD or teaching experience. He said that the academic credentials of the members of the present committee to interview the candidates, who possess much higher academic qualifications than each one of the committee members, raise serious issues of credibility.He said the entire process of selection for the posts of vice chancellors, commencing from the constitution and composition of the search committee and continuation through selective interviews, was lacking legal basis and a credible mechanism and was liable to be set-aside.He said that the Punjab government through an advertisement on Jan 19, 2011 invited applications for the post of vice chancellors in six public sector universities of Punjab. He also applied for the post of vice chancellor GCU, being eligible as per criteria laid down in the advertisement. He said a candidate for the said post was required to have PhD degree in any subject from a reputed university.However, he said, the search committee later changed the criteria and preferences and was inviting only foreign qualified candidates. He said call letters were issued to the candidates holding PhD degree from a list of 500 top foreign universities of the world.The candidates holding PhD degrees from Pakistani universities were not called for interview. And he, being holder of a Ph.D degree from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, was also not called for interview, the petitioner said. He pleaded that the exclusion of his name was discriminatory and illegal.The petitioner argued that the reported selection of 500 top foreign universities by the search committee was arbitrary and had no basis. He said the 500 top universities of today could not be given preference over the top universities of yesteryears when the applicants/candidates completed their PhDs, adding that it was tantamount o a retrospective application of classification. The counsel continued saying that the exclusion of Pakistani universities from the list of ‘reputed universities’ and giving preference to foreign universities was discriminatory, whimsical, without lawful basis and malafide.
