SHC summons CM’s universities and boards secretary tomorrow

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) summoned on Wednesday the provincial chief minister’s secretary for universities and boards to explain what steps were taken for the appointment of the vice-chancellor (VC) of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on a regular basis in compliance with the court’s judgment.

A single bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, summoned in person the secretary on April 14 in a case against the appointment of Prof Dr Khawar Saeed Jamali as ‘acting’ VC of the medical university in alleged violation of the court’s judgment.

Jamali’s appointment was challenged in court by Prof Dr Rana Qamar Masood, who had taken the CM’s secretary, the chancellor, acting VC and registrar of DUHS among others to the court.

The petitioner had challenged two notifications issued by the chancellor on March 15. The first notification relates to the expiry of the two-year re-employment tenure of Prof Masood Hameed as acting VC. The other notification relates to the appointment of Prof Jamali as acting VC ‘with immediate effect till further orders’.

Advocate Khawaja Shamsul Islam for the plaintiff alleged that the SHC, in its judgment rendered in 2015, had ordered that the DUHS VC be appointed on a regular basis. However, he contended that the chancellor had appointed Prof Jamali as acting VC, which was a violation of the court’s judgment.

Therefore, he had pleaded to the court to declare the March 15 notifications illegal and in violation of the court’s judgment. Subsequently, he requested the court to declare Jamali’s appointment null and void and order the defendants to appoint a regular VC.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, the secretary to the chief minister was absent, despite issuance of a notice to him on April 7 with direction to appear in person.

Justice Mazhar observed that the court’s bailiff reported that the notice had been served to the secretary at the Chief Minister House with its stamp affixed but he was not present.

In the first round of the hearing, the court directed the state counsel, Sharfuddin Mangi, to call the secretary to the court. Later, assistant advocate-general Ziauddin Junejo appeared and requested for time to call the secretary.

Justice Mazhar noted with displeasure that after the notice and its non-compliance, it is a fit case to issue a show-cause notice to the secretary to explain why he failed to appear. However, fixing the matter on April 14 on request of the Junejo, the bench ordered the secretary to be present in the court.

Source: The Express Tribune