A four-member bench of the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry on Wednesday appointed the senior most professor of University of Health Sciences (UHS) Prof Dr IA Naveed as the chief executive and vice chancellor of the medical varsity to run its administrative affairs till the government fills the post of VC on merit from among the eligible candidates.
The bench headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani passed the order when advocate General Punjab (AGP) Aushtar Ausaf on behalf of government withdrew government’s appeal petition against the Lahore High Court judgment that had cancelled the notification of reappointment of UHS VC Malik Hussain Mubbashar after his retirement at the age of 60. The LHC had cancelled the contract appointment of directing government fill the post on merit. Malik Mubassar did not file the appeal against LHC order; it was the government that came to SC in appeal stating that the LHC order had increased difficulties for the government because it had not been easy to fill the VC slots in such a short time period.
On Wednesday, Aushtar told the court that the government wanted to withdraw its appeal petition against the cancellation of Dr Mubassar’s appointment by LHC. The AGP said the government had intended to legislate with regards to increasing the retirement age for the VC and for that time of three months was required. The court disposed of the petition allowing the government to withdraw the petition and do the legislation on the matter of age bar for the VC.
The bench also directed the government through the AGP to appoint a new VC at the UHS within the next three months purely on merit and to do the same at King Edward Medical College University (KEMCU) which was working under an Adhoc VC for the last two years. The bench stated, “If the government failed to do the required legislation in within three months, the new VC will be appointed under the existing age limit law and no delay will be tolerated.”
Earlier the bench had expressed concerns that several top slots were lying vacant in sensitive departments while the government did not seem to be serious with regards to complying with the court orders. During the hearing of the appeal the SC suspended the LHC order temporarily and had allowed Mubbashar to work as UHS VC till the final decision so that working of the varsity would not suffer.
