A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday allowed one week to the Punjab governor’s counsel to file a reply to the proceedings of the Intra-Court Appeals (ICAs) against dismissal of writ petitions by a single bench pertaining to the governor’s appointment of Vice Chancellors (VCs) for six varsities. Azam Nazir Tarar filed his power of attorney on behalf of the governor and requested the court give him time to file a reply to the appeals.
The chief justice adjourned hearing till September 28 and directed the counsel to ensure submission of the reply at the next hearing.
Hassan Amir Shah, Yousaf Hayat, Shaukat Ali and Maqbool Hussain Sial filed the appeals. A single bench of Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh had on June 24, last dismissed their writ petitions against the appointment of VCs and had declared that the Punjab government’s search committee had acted lawfully and no irregularities in the process of appointment had been found. The petitioners also pleaded that the higher education department had no role to play in the selection of VCs of public sector universities, neither as per the applicable statutory regime nor as per the Punjab government’s rules of business. They said the single bench had erred in dismissing the writ petitions.