High court restrains DUET from making unlawful appointments

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has restrained the Dawood University of Engineering & Technology (DUET) from making any appointment for the posts of assistant professors, lecturers and junior lecturers without applying the prevailing law for the appointment of such officials.

The interim order came on a petition of Mushfaq Ahmed and others who were working as lectures and lab engineers at the university, challenging the recruitment criteria at DUET. They said they had applied for the post of assistant professor and had been waiting for the interview call from the selection board, which made a selection only for the post of private secretary, but the remaining positions remained vacant to date.

They also said that the selection board of DUET left the posts of assistant professors, lecturers and junior lecturers vacant despite the fact that they had invited applications for different posts at the university through advertisements. The petitioners said they had the right on seniority basis and should be part of the selection process and interviews under the DUET statutes 2021.

They said the respondents had deprived the petitioners of their legal right because they allegedly wanted to hire pre-selected individuals and earn money during the selection process by publishing advertisements for the vacant posts again and again.

They requested the court to issue a stay order against the recruitment process until the final disposal of the petition. After the petition’s preliminary hearing, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi issued notices to DUET and others, directing them to file comments on the petition.

The court directed DUET to conduct themselves strictly in accordance with the law. The bench also restrained the university from making any appointment of any person pursuant to advertisements published in different newspapers without applying the prevailing law for the appointment of officials at DUET.