DUHS VC’s appointment suspended yet again

Karachi
With the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) embroiled in a row with the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) over the appointment of the former's vice chancellor, the PMA on Friday got Dr Naushad Sheikh's appointment cancelled for the second time on the orders of the Sindh High Court (SHC).
The SHC gave the directives while hearing PMA’s petition which had challenged the appointment of Dr Naushad Sheikh on the orders of Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ebad.
The petitioner’s counsel, Haider Waheed, submitted that the Governor was the competent authority to appoint a VC before the promulgation of Sindh Universities and Institutions (Amendment) Act, 2014, under which the chancellor could only appoint a VC on the government’s advice.
He submitted that the committee, tasked with picking out a candidate, had in its evaluation named Dr Mohammad Saeed Qureshi but in disregard to his credentials and qualification he was ignored by the chancellor, who again appointed Dr Sheikh as the VC after withdrawing the decision. He maintained that there had been no changes in the committee’s selection and the impugned notification regarding the appointment of Dr Sheikh was issued without any logical reason or rationale.
The counsel said that appointment of Dr Sheikh as VC DUHS was ultra vires and in direct contravention of section 12(1) of DUHS Act as well as Article 105 of the Constitution, as the provisions do not leave any discretion with the chancellor to ignore the committee’s advice and substitute someone of his own choice.
The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the DUHS chancellor, chief secretary, Dr Naushad Sheikh and government law officers for November 10 and in suspended the impugned notification until further orders.