DUET put on notice on engineering student’s plea against admission cancellation

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued notices to the Dawood University of Engineering and Technology Karachi (DUET) against the cancellation of a final year engineering student’s admission by the university.

The petitioner, Haseeb Khan, submitted in the petition that he was a student of BE final year but his review application for restoration of admission had been turned down by the varsity’s syndicate.

The petitioner’s counsel, Usman Farooq, submitted that the petitioner was discriminated against by the university administration as among the 11 students whose admissions were earlier cancelled on the basis of a protest against fee increase, he was the only one whose admission had not been restored.

The counsel submitted that the admissions of the other 10 students had been restored following court orders and submitting of an undertaking about their conduct but the petitioner’s admission was not restored.

He submitted that the petitioner also filed an appeal before the syndicate which was dismissed and thereafter the review application was also turned down without providing him any opportunity of hearing.

The SHC was informed that there was no alternative remedy available to the petitioner except to file an instant petition to save his entire academic career.

He requested the high court to direct the university to accept the appeal of the petitioner and allow him to complete his final year studies. He said that the petitioner was willing to give an undertaking with regard to his conduct and good behaviour during the session.

A division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi after a preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the DUET and Sindh advocate general, and called their comments on May 24.

Notice to SSGC

The SHC has also issued notices to the Sui Southern Gas Company and others on a petition against excessive gas charges by the utility company.

The petitioners, who were residents and sub-lease holders of the Saima Arabia Villas in Gadap town, had submitted that the SSGC was providing bulk supply gas connection to the lease holders and charging exorbitant amount from them in excess of the actual amount to be calculated as per the units consumed.

They submitted that they had approached the SSGC and Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for individual connections but the needful had not been done so far.

They requested the high court to direct the SSGC to provide individual connections to them and calculated the utility charges as per the units consumed.