SHC issues notices on plea against panel’s proposals for appointment of board chairmen

The Sindh High Court has issued notices to the universities and board department, a search committee and others on a petition challenging the process for the appointment of chairmen to various educational boards in the province.

The direction came on a petition of Altaf Ahmed, who had challenged the selection criteria and recruitment process for the appointments of chairmen to educational boards in Sindh.

The petitioner submitted that he has challenged the recommendations of the search committee in favour of private respondents on the grounds that he has better qualification and experience but for extraneous reasons he was not selected.

The petitioner submitted that the search committee had violated the law in the selection process for the appointment of educational boards’ chairmen as the appointments were being made on the basis of favouritism instead of merit.

He alleged that the manner selection committee conducted the selection process demonstrate that it was merely a façade designed to create a semblance of legal backing and due process for political appointments.

He further alleged that the search committee and other respondents have acted contrary to the law in an attempt to benefit a particular group and in direct violation of established legal norms. He submitted that the impugned summary lacks any objective criteria justifying the selection of private respondents rendering the process arbitrary, discriminatory and devoid of any legal justification.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that all vacancies of education boards’ chairmen were being filled exclusively through favored persons without any adherence to the principles of equal opportunity, transparency and merit based selection.

He said that this monopolization of appointments not only contravenes the law but also infringes upon the fundamental right of eligible candidates who have been unjustly excluded from consideration. He submitted that the universities and education boards did undue haste to issue the appointment letter without waiting from verification reports from law enforcement agencies with regard to security clearance of the private respondents.

He said candidates whose names were placed before the chief minister were not qualified for the post, and requested the high court to stop the selection process till the decision of the petition.

The court was also requested to declare the process of appointment, impugned summary and its endorsement with regard to appointment illegal and to direct the search committee to conduct the appointment process afresh in accordance with the law.

A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Faisal Kamal Alam after the preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the universities and boards department, search committee and others and directed the office to fix the case with identical petitions.