SHC proposes names for interim Szabul VC if new VC not appointed in 30 days

The Sindh High Court has proposed four names for the appointment of an interim vice chancellor (VC) of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law (Szabul) as a stop gap arrangement as the process of appointment of a permanent VC may take more than 30 days.

The direction came on a petition seeking appointment of a full time VC of Szabul. The petitioner, Sheeraz Mumtaz, submitted in the petition that the Sindh government had not appointed a permanent VC of the university since the end of the previous VC’s tenure.

A provincial law officer submitted that the process of appointment of a new VC would be concluded within 30 days after following the codal formalities as per the law. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that as per the university’s statute, power vested under the Szabul Act itself required that a law-knowing individual was appointed as the VC who may be an academic officer having a law background.

He submitted that the additional charge of the acting VC of Szabul had been given to the Sindh Madressatul Islam University VC who did not fit the criteria prescribed by the university’s statute.

The provincial law officer submitted that since the efforts for appointment of a full-time VC pursuant to a notification were under way and a new VC would be appointed within 30 days, all such concerns were untimely.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan observed in its order that even as a stop gap arraignment, a distinguished and academic individual having legal background was not found for appointment as the interim VC.

The high court proposed names of Salman Talibuddin, Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, Mushtaq Memon and Dr Rana M Shamim for the interim VC if the process of the appointment of a permanent VC took more than 30 days.