The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday once again suspended the notification for appointment of Professor Naushad A Shaikh as Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Dow University of Health & Sciences (DUHS) till November 10, 2015.
The SHC bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah took up the petition filed by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) which moved the court for the second time against the appointment of Professor Shaikh as VC of DUHS.
Earlier, the same petitioner had reached the SHC challenging Professor Shaikh’s appointment as VC of DUHS on which the court on 8th October suspended the operation of the notification that made him as VC of the varsity. However, on 12th October the court was informed that the governor had withdrawn the notification for appointment of Professor Shaikh as VC, so the court disposed of the petition.
The PMA stated that meanwhile on 26th of October Professor Shaikh was once again appointed on the same post while there were no changes in finding of the search committee to discover a suitable candidate for this coveted post.
The petitioner stated that earlier Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad and the chancellor was the competent authority for appointing vice chancellors of the government varsities. But now according to the Sindh University and Institutes Laws (Amendment) Act 2014, he has to take recommendations from the government’s committee to appoint vice chancellor of any university.
The petitioner submitted that the search committee which was formed to find a suitable candidate had forwarded a summary for the approval recommending Dr Saeed Qureshi as the vice chancellor. But the governor while ignoring Dr Qureshi’s qualification and experience, appointed Professor Shaikh as VC of DUHS.
After initial hearing, the court suspended the operation of notification dated 26th of October which re-appointed Professor Shaikh as VC of DUHS till 10th November. The court also issued notices to the additional attorney general and other respondents to file their comments on the next hearing.
