Replies sought on plea against VC search committee

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday sought replies from the Punjab government and secretary higher education department on a petition challenging composition of a single search committee for appointment of vice chancellors at 12 public sector universities in the province.

At the outset of the hearing, petitioner’s counsel Rana Asadullah Khan stated before the court that the government miserably failed to follow parameters established in Supreme Court judgments for selection of members of a search committee.

He argued that the government also violated guidelines forwarded by the HED and PHEC for selection process of the members of the search committee in which they have categorically admitted to form a separate and independent search committee for each and every university of the province. The counsel contended that the fixed tenure of the impugned search committee for two years was implausible as well and against the past practice as the search committees constituted for specific university automatically dissolved after the selection process.

He also alleged that respondent Dr Khalid Aftab had been appointed as convener of the search committee being closely related to Prime Minister Imran Khan. The counsel appealed the court to set aside the notification of the impugned search committee for being illegal and direct the government to constitute independent search committees for selection of vice chancellors for each public sectors university. Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabbir heard the arguments and sought replies from the respondent within a fortnight.