Staff Reporter
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the provincial government, the university and board department and a search committee to maintain status quo with regard to the process of appointing vice chancellors to Karachi University and two other universities in the province. The interim order came during a hearing of a petition of Prof Dr Mohammad Ahmed Qadri and others, who impugned the corrigendum published by the secretary of universities and the board department changing the qualification criteria for the appointment of VCs. The petitioners’ counsel, Abrar Hasan, submitted that the universities and board department and the search committee were “in drill to give” benefit to a few candidates through the impugned corrigendum who had already applied, but seemingly to the exclusion of the petitioners. He said the official respondents with view to accommodating their favourite applicants had thus opted to change the criteria/requisite qualification of a candidate in an afterthought manner through the corrigendum. He submitted that the official respondents had deprived the petitioners of their rights of participation in the process of appointment as vice chancellors. A division bench headed by Justice Azizur Rehman, after the preliminary hearing of the petition, issued notices to the Sindh government, the university and boards department and the search committee, and ordered them to maintain status quo.
