Acting KU VC’s administrative, financial decisions since January 26 suspended

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday ordered to keep in abeyance all the administrative and financial decision taken by the acting vice chancellor of the University of Karachi since January 26.

The direction came on a contempt-of-court application filed by Prof Dr Ahmed Qadri and others against the non-compliance of court orders to remove KU’s acting VC and appoint the senior-most professor from among the 10 most senior professors as acting VC.

The applicants’ counsel said that the alleged contemnors did not comply with the court’s orders in which they were told to forward the names of 10 senior-most KU professors of grade-22 to the chief minister to nominate one of them, who would then be notified as acting VC until the permanent VC’s appointment.

The counsel said the court’s directions were clear, but the competent authority had failed and neglected to nominate the most senior professor as acting VC, while the incumbent acting VC continued to perform his duties in violation of court orders.

He said the acting VC has been making administrative and financial decisions, negating the court’s directions. He also said the competent authority has not yet reconstituted the search committee, which amounts to contempt of court orders.

He requested the court to initiate contempt-of-court proceedings against acting KU VC Prof Dr Khalid Mohammad Iraqi, the KU registrar and the universities & boards secretary.

KU’s counsel filed a compliance report and a list of 10 senior-most professors, saying that there was no grade-22 professor at KU. He said that there is nothing else left on KU’s part to comply with. The applicants’ counsel disputed the report, saying that this is not a compliance report but mere eyewash.

An SHC division bench comprising Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar and Justice Adnanul Karim Memon said that if this is the respondents’ attitude, the court is inclined to keep in abeyance all the administrative and financial decisions taken by the acting VC with effect from January 26.

The court directed the universities & boards secretary to file a compliance report within a week, failing which the court will be left with no other option but to initiate contempt-of-court proceedings against the alleged contemnors.

The court directed the competent authority to submit a detailed report about the appointment of acting VC in the intervening period and the reconstitution of the search committee as directed by the court.

The court granted a week’s time to KU for forwarding the names of 10 senior-most professors, according to the seniority list maintained by the university, to be placed before the CM to nominate one of them as acting VC.

The following names are on KU’s seniority list submitted to the universities & boards department: Nasira Khatoon (Zoology), Samina Bano (Biochemistry), Shagufta Shahzadi (Special Education), Nusrat Idrees (Political Science), Shaista Tabbasum (International Relations), Musarat Jehan Yousuf (Zoology), Anjum Parveen (Centre for Plant Conservation), Shahnaz Dawar (Botany), Hajra Tahir (Chemistry) and Rehana Saeed (Chemistry).

Besides forwarding the list to the CM, the court had directed the government to constitute a search committee for a term of two years in accordance with the law to make recommendations for appointing KU VCs in terms of the rules and regulations set forth by the government.

Fuuast VC issue

The SHC issued notices to the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology (Fuuast) and others on an application challenging the notification for the appointment of the Fuuast VC.

Prof Dr Mohammad Zahid said in his application that the matter pertaining to the appointment of the Fuuast VC was pending in court, and no written response had been filed by Fuuast in the instant matter.

The applicant’s counsel said he came to know that the federal government had issued the impugned notification appointing Dr Athar Ata as Fuuast VC, which not only violates the law but was also done in the presence of operating court orders.

He said the impugned notification was issued to frustrate the court proceedings and the grievance of the petitioner. He added that the tenure of the search committee came to end after Dr Shahid Qureshi’s appointment as Fuuast VC on September 16, 2021.

The counsel said Qureshi later resigned from the post, adding that the name of Dr Ata, who was at serial number two, cannot be reused for a subsequent appointment on the same position.

Fuuast’s counsel sought further time to collect some documents and waived the notice on the application. The court directed the counsel to file comments on the application by March 2.