Pleas challenging appointment of VCs adjourned

LAHORE, April 28: Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Ijazul Ahsan adjourned the hearing of six identical petitions challenging the appointment process of vice-chancellors of six public universities and the composition of a `search committee` tasked with appointments. Earlier, the Punjab government in its reply submitted to the court that the search committee was inviting only those candidates who meet the criteria for the appointments. It said the committee did not invite the petitioners for interviews as their academic credentials did not meet the criteria as candidates holding PhD degrees from top 500 foreign and local universities were being short listed. Advocate Rana Asadullah Khan representing two of the petitioners requested the court to stay the proceedings of the search committee till the decision. Justice Ahsan, however, turned down the request and observed that the court would get its order impl emented even after completion of appointment process by the search committee. The judge adjourned hearing for May 13 as additional advocate general Faisal Zaman sought time to argue the case. Petitions were filed by Dr Hassan Amir Shah of Government College University, Lahore, Bushra Khan of Lahore College for Women`s University and others. The petitioners had applied for the posts of vice-chancellors and later challenged the alleged changing in the advertised criteria for the posts. They also assailed the composition of search committee saying there were no rules, regulations and policy guidelines for selection and appointment of its members. They said none of the members of search committee had a PhD degree or teaching experience but they were holding interviews of those who possessed much higher academic qualifications than each one of them.