Sindh caretaker govt changes policy to appoint law varsity’s VC

The Sindh caretaker government has changed the policy for the appointment of vice-chancellor to the Law University, according to which retired judges of the Supreme Court or the high court will no longer be eligible to become vice-chancellor.

The Department of Boards and Universities has set the age limit for the vice chancellor of the law university at 62 years, while the high court judge retires at 62 and the Supreme Court judge at 65 years.

Thus, the retired judges of both courts will no longer be eligible to apply for the post. Earlier, former Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law VC Justice (retd) Rana Shamim became vice chancellor at the age of 70 years, while the first VC of the university, Justice (retd) Qazi Khalid, became vice chancellor at the age of 63 years.

Interestingly, the age limit of the vice-chancellor is 65 years in the federation, and Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, but Sindh is the only province that has fixed the age of the vice-chancellor at 62 years. It should be remembered that earlier in Sindh the age limit of vice chancellor was 65 years.

While the age limit for the Law University was 70 years, former Boards and Universities secretary Mureed Rahimon reduced the age limit from 65 to 62. The reason for this appeared to be an attempt to exclude the female candidate of Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Lubna Baig, from the race of VC because she was the number one candidate in Jinnah Sindh Medical University, and Dr Amjad Siraj Memon was number two, but Dr Amjad Siraj was appointed as vice chancellor. Afer Dr Lubna Baig challenged this matter in the court, Dr Amjad Siraj Memon was removed, and the court asked the Sindh chief minister to interview the candidates again.

However, former chief minister Murad Ali Shah again appointed Dr Amjad Siraj Memon VC, and this decision was challenged again by Dr Lubna Baig. Since then the case has been in court, but Lubna Bai's age is over 62 years.

In the summary sent by the current secretary of the Board and Universities, Noor Sumoo, the age limit for the VC of the Law University has also been reduced to 62 years. Retired judges of the Supreme Court and the high court will not be eligible to apply.

Secretary Boards and Universities Noor Sumoo said the policy of setting the age limit to 62 years has been approved by the chief minister. This is a uniform policy and applicable to all vice chancellors.