Sindh passes law to let bureaucrats become VCs of varsities

KARACHI: Amid vocal protest by the opposition legislators, the Sindh Assembly on Friday passed through a majority vote the Sindh Civil Courts Ordinance (Amendment) Bill and another bill to amend the Sindh Universities Act mainly to change the rules followed to appoint the vice-chancellor of the public sector varsities in the province.

The opposition members tore copies of the two bills and gathered near the rostrum of the speaker to resort to vocal sloganeering against the provincial government.

Leader of Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Ali Khursheedi said the government should not have shown such undue haste in passing the two important bills. He said the opposition legislators should be allowed to speak on the proposed laws in the House as per the democratic traditions.

The Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan lawmaker said the ruling party should not champion the cause of democracy if the opposition members were not allowed to speak in the House.

Sindh Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar moved the Sindh Civil Courts Ordinance (Amendment) Bill in the House. The law minister said the civil cases did not fall in the jurisdiction of the high court. He said the civil cases were directly being filed in the high court. He told the House that over 25,000 cases had been pending in the high court.

Lanjar said the amendment bill was aimed at providing speedy and inexpensive justice to people. He opined that the civil courts should hear civil cases as per their jurisdiction.

The opposition leader, however, said the House should not show haste in passing the bill instead it should have been referred to the relevant standing committee of the assembly for a proper review. He said the government had been using its sheer majority in the House to hurriedly pass the bills.

The provincial law minister said the opposition legislators had been opposing a bill that would serve a very good cause.

The opposition legislators displayed placards in the House containing slogans against the government.

Meanwhile, the House also passed the bill to amend the Sindh Universities Act to change the rules, which govern the procedure followed to appoint the vice chancellor of a public sector university. The amended rules would pave the way for the appointment of an in-service grade-21 bureaucrat having a master’s degree or a bachelor’s of engineering degree as a vice-chancellor of a public sector university in Sindh. A bureaucrat has to leave the civil service in case he is selected as the VC.

A search committee will propose three names for an appointment to the vacant post of a VC. The maximum age qualification for becoming a VC will be 62 years. No opposition legislator proposed any amendment to the bill.

Later, talking to media persons after the session was adjourned till coming Monday, Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah clarified that the newly passed law had not debarred the academics and professors from becoming the VCs of the public sector universities. He opined that the bureaucratic service and civil society were full of eminent persons who could play a role in the progress of the universities. He clarified that a grade-21 bureaucrat would be appointed as the VC only if he meets the rest of the selection criteria prescribed for this selection. He was of the view that a VC had to look after mainly the administrative affairs of the universities.

The education minister said the newly passed law didn’t just favour the bureaucrats. He told media persons that the Opposition legislators didn’t move any amendment when the draft of the bill had been considered by the relevant standing committee of the House. He claimed that similar amendments to rules had also been carried out in India in favour of the civil service and industry representatives. He informed the journalists that the newly passed law had allowed candidates from four different walks of life to apply for the post of VCs.

Meanwhile, responding to a call attention notice, the Sindh Senior Minister for Information and Transport, Sharjeel Inam Memon, said the passenger fares of the Peoples Bus Service in urban centres of the province would be increased to a small extent to reduce the subsidy expense of the Sindh government in this connection. He said the savings through slashing of the Sindh government subsidies to People’s Bus Service would be used to purchase new buses. He said the Sindh cabinet had rejected the proposal to altogether withdraw the subsidy given by the Sindh government to reduce the passenger fares of the Peoples Bus Service. He said the increase in passenger fare of Peoples Bus Service had become inevitable due to increase in fuel rates.