VCs appointment: Court moved against age limit condition

PESHAWAR: A retired professor has moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) seeking orders to abolish the age limit of 62 years for the appointment of the vice-chancellor of a university.

Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad, who retired from the Biotechnology Department of the University of Peshawar, filed the petition through his lawyer Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel.

The petitioner, who has also served as the vice-chancellor of Bacha Khan University Charsadda, argued that the positions of the vice-chancellors had been lying vacant in several universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said the government placed advertisements in newspapers in a bid to fill the vacant positions.

However, he said the government had set the upper age limit for the appointment of the vice-chancellor as 62 years.

The petitioner believed that it was a violation of the Universities Act 2012, which according to him had placed no age restriction.

He said that there was no age limit for the appointment of the vice-chancellors and that the age limit for vice-chancellors serving in Punjab and other provinces was 65 years.

The petitioner requested the court to order the government to waive the age limit condition and allow him to apply for the vacant positions.