SC ends tug-of-war between Shahbaz and Khosa

The Supreme Court (SC) put an end to a scuffle on Friday between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Governor Sardar Latif Khosa over the right to appoint the vice chancellor (VC) of public universities of the province, with the chief minister coming out with the upper hand.
The SC judgement stated clearly that the governor was bound to follow the advice of the chief minister when appointing VCs of universities and also instructed the authorities concerned to act upon the summary of the chief minister regarding the appointment of Professor Dr Syed Khawja Alqama as the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan VC for a four-year term. However, Punjab Higher Education Secretary Haseeb Ather said the authorities were awaiting a written order from the SC and the notification of Dr Alqama’s appointment as VC would be issued according to procedure after it was received.
A bench of the SC under Justice Tasaduq Hussain Gillani had announced the decision earlier on Friday, clearing up a row between the chief minister and the governor. The decision ends a tug-of-war between the two top authorities in the province that has been going on for many months as both tried to appoint their candidate as the VC at BZU Multan, which is also the hometown of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Ever since the 18th Amendment, education has become a provincial subject and the governor is legally bound to follow the chief minister’s advice in VC appointments, but the governor was reluctant, leading the matter to the apex court.
A total of 159 candidates had applied for the BZU VC post and after shortlisting candidates on the basis of qualifications and experience, the Search Committee interviewed 66 candidates. The committee was formed according to a decision taken in the 2nd Chancellors Committee meeting presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari. After interviews and deliberations, the committee recommended the following three candidates in order of merit (based on marks secured by each candidate out of 100) for consideration of the governor/chancellor and consequent approval for appointment as VC: Prof Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Jadoon, Professor Dr Syed Khawja Alqama and Prof Dr Muhammad Zafarullah, according to a senior official in the Punjab Higher Education Department (HED).
The HED secretary then submitted a summary through the education minister and chief secretary to the chief minister with a proposal in para 5 stating: “Chief Minister may like to approve the recommendations of Standing Search Committee, place panel before Governor/Chancellor and advise him to appoint Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Jadoon as Vice-Chancellor, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan for a term not exceeding four years, in accordance with merit.”
Sources said instead of approving the recommendations of the Search Committee, the chief minister called the top two candidates in the above panel for BZU, and the top two candidates for two other panels constituted for Government College University, Lahore and University of Education, Lahore. Since Dr Alqama was abroad, the chief minister met only five candidates including Prof Dr Jadoon in a joint meeting. No formal one-on-one interviews were conducted. After these so-called interviews, the secretary to the chief minister relayed to the principal secretary to the governor/chancellor that: “The chief minister, after interviewing the first two candidates on the panel recommended by the Search Committee, is of the view that Dr Syed Khawja Alqama is more suitable for appointment as VC BZU, Multan and has been pleased to advise the Governor/Chancel to appoint Dr Syed Khawja Alqama as VC of the said University for a term not exceeding four years.” Dr Alqama is the son of the late Khwaja Khairuddin, an old Muslim Leaguer from East Pakistan, and is a classmate of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He was appointed Ambassador of Pakistan to Yemen based on his qualifications.
Meanwhile, sources said that ignoring the advice of the chief minister, the governor appointed Prof Dr Muhammad Zafarullah as the BZU VC, who was No 3 in accordance with merit. According to an HED official, both the chief minister and the governor, incumbents of the highest offices in the provincial administration, ironically might have acted legally in their own right but certainly acted improperly in terms of principles of merit and natural justice, resorting to political, ethnic and regional considerations in exercise of their perceived powers given in the constitution and the University Act.
He said the chief minister rejected the No 1 candidate and picked the No 2 because he was the son of Khwaja Khairuddin and the governor rejected the No 1 because he was not from Multan and selected the No 3 candidate, who hails from Multan. He said both executives ignored the fact that the very purpose of the Search Committee was to promote merit and minimise arbitrary use of discretion in the process of VC selection.
After the decision of the SC on Friday, the academic community seemed to be happy with the turn of events as according to them now it was clear that the governor was bound to follow the chief minister’s advice and said they hoped future governors would not disturb the process for politics. Affairs at BZU were badly disturbed because of the power struggle between the governor and chief minister as academic and research activities suffered in the absence of a VC.