Staff Reporter
The Lahore High Court on Wednesday set aside the University of Agriculture Faisalabad syndicate elections held against the slot of professor and declared it illegal and void.
The case was heard in the court of Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza. The polls were held on December 28, 2019 in the senate meeting.
The petitioner, Prof Dr Jafar Jaskani contended in the petition that unauthorized persons were permitted to cast votes in the elections. The petitioner secured 43 votes whereas his competitor Prof Dr Mahmood A Randhawa got 42 votes. The then Vice Chancellor cancelled three votes of the petitioner and two votes of the competitor.
He contended that the name of Dr Ijaz Ahmad Warriach was mentioned twice in the voter list and subsequently was allowed to vote twice, which is illegal. He said that names of Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad and Prof Dr Muhammad Azam Khan were intentionally omitted from the voter list although they were liable to be included.
He said that secretaries not less than rank of additional secretaries of Punjab Finance Department and PLDD were members of the elections and entitled to vote. Whereas the two directors of Punjab departments below the ranks of additional secretaries casted the vote.
The UAF Registrar filed the report on 20-10-2020 accepting the stance of petitioner by stating that representative of two secretaries were not entitled to cast the vote. He also admitted that Dr Ijaz Warraich was not entitled to cast the vote and contended that fresh elections may be ordered.
The LHC declared the elections void and declared it unlawful and directed the university to hold fresh elections.
