In compliance with the Sindh High Court’s orders, the University of Karachi last month withdrew the appointment and promotion letters of nine faculty members designated as professors and associate professors after the selection board of 2018.
According to a notification issued by KU registrar Prof Dr Abdul Waheed on April 26, the faculty members whose appointment and promotion letters had been withdrawn were Dr Erum Zahir, Dr Shaikh Mohiuddin, Dr Masooda Qadri, Dr Uzama Ashiq, Dr Zahid Hussain, Dr Raheela Naz, Dr Rifat Ara Jamal, Dr Syed Kashif Ali and Dr Syed Tariq Ali.
Earlier this year, three faculty members -- Dr Imran Ali Hashmi, Dr Shaista Parveen and Dr Zahid Hussain -- had filed three constitutional petitions in the Sindh High Court, in which Dr Hashmi and Dr Shaista had said that the varsity administration had appointed some blue-eyed faculty members who were not eligible to hold public office either as an associate professor in BPS-20 or as professors in BPS-21, and that they had no qualification and required experience demanded by the varsity in the advertisement published on December 26, 2014.
However, during the hearing, the court found that some faculties did not meet the set criteria and they had not published their papers in the journals recognised by the Higher Education of Pakistan. Likewise, the petitioners alleged, the varsity administration didn’t follow the due process for selecting suitable candidates for the positions of professors and associate professors, and it had exercised its powers illegally with malicious intent to sabotage their legal rights by selecting their blue-eyed individuals.
The court in its decision has said that the responsibility of fixing criteria for the appointment of associate professors and professors falls on the relevant authority of the varsity. “It is also settled law that courts ordinarily refrain from interfering in the policymaking domain of the executive of the public sector universities until and unless the same offends the fundamental rights of the parties.”
The court observed that the selection board 2018 had seriously prejudiced the case of the petitioners, which needed to be looked into afresh after proper scrutiny under the law. This is why, the court also set aside the findings of the selection board of 2018 and ordered the varsity administration to determine afresh whether the candidates and respondents had the requisite academic qualifications duly recognised under the law for the positions of professor and associate professor in the KU.
“The competent authority is further directed to immediately send the copies of the said original academic certificates, degrees, publications of the petitioners and the respondents to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for verification.”
Directing the HEC and the KU, the court ordered the commission to look into the academic qualifications of the faculty members after ascertaining genuineness or otherwise and submit a report to the syndicate of the university in a sealed envelope within one month. After that, the competent authority of the university should issue recommendations for the subject appointments with reasoning as provided under the law within one week from the date of receipt of the report from the HEC.
However, the varsity, while starting implementing the court decision, withdrew the appointment letters of those faculty members who were promoted and appointed after the selection board of 2018.