Supreme Court dismisses names for appointment of PU VC

LAHORE: A two-member bench of the Supreme Court Friday dismissed the names sent by search committee for the appointment of a permanent vice chancellor of the Punjab University, ruling that the list was prepared in violation of merit.

The court sought detailed reports from respective search committees on appointment of permanent vice chancellors at medical universities in Punjab while directed the government to resend summary for the vice chancellor of Punjab University by mentioning names of the nominees on the basis of seniority instead of alphabetically.

Earlier, Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed told a two-judge bench that the search committees would complete the process for the appointment of the vice chancellors at medical universities by the end of June.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who headed the bench, observed that the search committees should discharge their duty with utmost sincerity as it was time to paying back to the country.

A two-member bench is hearing suo motu notice into appointment of permanent VCs in public sector universities.

At the outset of hearing, Higher Education Department secretary informed the court that the approval has been given to make Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed of University of Engineering & Technology (Taxila) as a permanent VC of the Punjab University and a notification to this effect would be issued today (Saturday).

Addressing the secretary HED, Barrister Nabeel Awan, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, the other judge on the bench, said the court had given a clear-cut instruction to prepare final list of candidates purely on merit. The judge asked secretary to inform the court what is Niaz’s number on the merit list.

Nabeel conceded that list of candidates was prepared alphabetically. Punjab chief secretary said they are ready to prepare and send the list afresh in line with court’s order to which chief justice wondered that how the summary would be approved as the person who finalised the name is no more chief minister. However, chief secretary said law allows sending summary afresh.

He said the summary could be redrafted in compliance with the court’s direction. The chief justice adjourned the matter for today (Saturday) and allowing time to the chief secretary to comply with the order. Members of the search committee were also directed to attend the next hearing.

Earlier, advocate general told the court that government was facing problems as the written order about suspension of vice chancellor of Lahore College for Women University has not been received yet.

The chief justice remarked the he knew the person who is causing hurdles in Uzma Qureshi case. A political figure who speaks a lot is behind all this, he added. The court deferred hearing till today.

Meanwhile, the chief justice took suo motu notice of giving LCWU’s land to the government for construction of Jail Road signal-free corridor and sought details from the authorities concerned.

The chief justice also took notice of Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant and ordered its chief executive officer to return all the money he had taken as salary to the national exchequer.

“When are you returning that money? Everyone has to give it back,” the chief justice remarked while hearing the case at the Lahore Registry.

“Come up with a payment plan,” the top judge directed the chief secretary who also faced court’s wrath for showing sympathy to CEO Rashid Mahmood Langrial when the court asked him tough question about his appointment and salary. “Millions of rupees have gone waste. The responsibility of project failure will also be fixed upon you,” the CJ addressed Langrial, who was standing there to explain the performance of the project.

The bench questioned Langrial to explain as to how his appointment was made and what salary he had been drawing from the public exchequer. He said he had served with agriculture department as secretary and also served with energy sector. He said earlier he had been drawing Rs266,000 as salary. On it, the bench asked him that what salary he had been taking now on which he said he was getting Rs800,000 and so far Rs20.4 million he had drawn as salary from the project. The CJ observed when he was returning that money and the officer said it should be recovered from the government.

“It will be recovered from you. Everybody will give it back,” the CJ remarked and ordered him to deposit the amount in the national exchequer within two months.

When asked about the cost of one unit, he said it cost Rs 9.33 and the plant was of 1200 MW. The court directed the Punjab secretary to make payment-formula and adjourned the hearing till today.

In a separate case, the SC suspended Overseas Pakistanis Commissioner Afzal Bhatti after the NAB Punjab submitted a report about misappropriation in purchase of medicines in Punjab Institute of Cardiology.

During the proceedings, the two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar also questioned about the appointment of Afzal Bhatti as Overseas Commissioner and about his salary.

“How he has been appointed as Overseas Commissioner and under what capacity he has been drawing Rs1.1 million salary, perks and privileges?” the bench asked the chief secretary. The court had taken notice on plea of Fareeha Majeed, a pharmacist who had been previously serving with Punjab Institute of Cardiology.