Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday issued notices to Punjab University and others, challenging the appointment of four professors.
Justice Jawad Hassan issued notices on a petition filed by Advocate Chaudhry Shoaib Saleem against the appointment of Prof Dr Muhammad Saeed Shahid, Prof Dr Abid Hussain Chaudhry, Prof Dr Rafaqat Ali and Prof Dr Rizwan Akram Rana, for violating the Higher Education Commission’s criteria and the university law.
The petitioner’s counsel argued before the court that all the respondent professors were appointed in the IER on May 5, 2011, with effect from June 4, 2008, in violation of criteria of having at least 12 research articles to their credit in the HEC recognised journals.
The advocate said that the respondents’ appointment was also in violation of clause 5 of the statute 6 of the schedule of University of the Punjab University Act 1973 as the referees whom the research papers were sent for evaluation were neither approved by the syndicate nor had the background in the subject of education.
The petitioner’s lawyer pleaded with the court to declare the appointment of the respondent professors unlawful.
The court after hearing initial arguments issued notices to the university and others for the second week of February and sought their replies.