Unqualified person appointed principal SM Law College

KARACHI: A person Fareed Ahmed Dayo, without having required qualification, without advertisement, test and interview, has been appointed for the second time as the Principal of Sindh Muslim Law College, Karachi, a renowned public sector law institute of the province.

Dayo had earlier challenged Murtaza Wahab’s appointment as adviser to Chief Minister Sindh for Law. Wahab, besides holding the position of Administrator KMC, also holds the positions of spokesman of the Sindh government.

Earlier on November, 2016, the Sindh High Court divisional bench, headed by then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, declared Murtaza Wahab’s position as adviser to CM Sindh for Law illegal on the petition of Fareed Ahmed Dayo.

Authored by the chief justice, the 27-page verdict stated that there were terms and conditions provided in the Constitution for advisers to be appointed by the prime minister. However, there were no such rules provided for the appointment of advisers to the chief minister. The SHC ruled the CM’s powers to provide his advisers executive authority was unconstitutional.

The Sindh High Court, in its judgment, declared Murtaza Wahab’s appointment as adviser on law as illegal and superfluous on the ground that the advocate general was the person competent for the job and declared the appointment void and of no legal effect. The court also declared the appointment of Wahab as the chairman of the Board of Governors of law colleges in Karachi as without merit, illegal and void.

In the meantime, in 2016, the Sindh government filed an appeal before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the judgment of Sindh High Court. The Supreme Court suspended the same judgment till the finalization of appeal. The said appeal is still pending before the Supreme Court for the last six years, due to lack of interest of petitioner Dayo.

Credible sources of the Sindh government informed The News that the Sindh government had compromised with Dayo to keep him away from the said litigation and facilitated him by posting him as the Principal of Sindh Muslim (SM) Law College, Karachi, though he was not eligible for the said position. Besides this, his admission was also managed at the Shaheed Zulifqar Bhutto Law University, Karachi, despite the fact he was not eligible for both.

The petitioner, Dayo, has a degree of LLB in third division. According to rules, he was not eligible on the basis of the said degree for admission in LLM program in any law institute of the country. Moreover, according to the criteria of Higher Education Commission (HEC), no person can be appointed even as a lecturer in any educational institute having third class degree at any stage of his educational career. Despite this condition, Dayo was posted as principal of a renowned law college for the second time.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Sindh Law Department is the administrative department of all law colleges of the province, which is headed by Wahab as adviser to CM Sindh for Law.

Fareed Dayo, Principal of SM Law College, told this reporter that he was the petitioner against Murtaza Wahab but he was appointed principal of the college purely on merit both times. He added that he was a teacher at the same college for the last 20 years and eligible for the position.

Dayo admitted that he had passed his initial law degree LLB in third division but according to him there were a lot of examples of persons having degrees in third division posted as judges of upper courts and at other important positions.

Replying to a question, he said that Shaheed Zulfiqar Bhutto Law University has canceled his admission on this point (having LLB degree in third class) and he has challenged the decision in the Sindh High Court. The court has suspended the college’s decision and the matter is still pending before the court.

However, Dayo refused to comment upon the question of this reporter on failure to pursue his case against Murtaza Wahab in the Supreme Court. He was of the view that as the matter was pending in the court, he will not comment on the issue. This reporter approached Murtaza Wahab and his media consultant Sikandar Baloch for their version on this issue but they did not respond.

On the other hand, Rasheed Channa, Spokesman of Sindh Chief Minister, in his brief reply on the issue said that Shaheed Zulfiqar Bhutto Law College (Szabul) is run by an independent university board, while the SM Law College, Karachi, is run by another board which has appointed Fareed Ahmed Dayo as acting principal. The principal had passed away a few months ago, and there is no favor to Dayo on any political grounds, the spokesman claimed.