PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday sought records of all the recruitment made in University of Malakand (UoM) during tenure of its current vice-chancellor.

A bench consisting of Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar issued the order on a petition filed by former general secretary of PHC Bar Association Ali Zaman, who has challenged the appointment of Vice-Chancellor Dr Gul Zaman by the provincial government in 2017.

It fixed July 21 for the next hearing ordering the production of details of all regular and contractual appointments to the university during the tenure of the current VC.

The petitioner claimed that the VC was appointed in 2017 in violation of merit as several senior and distinguished candidates were ignored.

The respondents in the petition are the Higher Education Commission chairman, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through the higher education secretary, NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa director general and University of Malakand vice-chancellor Dr Gul Zaman.

Petition challenges VC’s appointment alleging merit violation

The petitioner’s counsel, Malik Mohammad Ajmal, said Dr Gul Zaman was an associate professor at the time of his appointment, while two other candidates, who were at serial number one and two of the list prepared by a search committee, were professors.

He said at Serial No 1 was Dr Zaffar Iqbal, who was a meritorious professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacy, University of Peshawar, and that he was also awarded Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by the government.

The lawyer claimed that at Serial No 2 was Prof Rehmat Ali, who was the dean of the Faculty of Sciences and also acted as the vice-chancellor of University of Malakand.

He added that Dr Rehmat currently worked as the vice-chancellor of the Shrengal University, Upper Dir. The lawyer said the current VC also lacked the requisite experience of 15 years when he was appointed an assistant professor in 2010.

He said without assigning any reason for ignoring the candidates at Serial Nos 1 and 2, the government had appointed the respondent as the vice-chancellor.

The lawyer alleged that the respondent (Dr Gul Zaman) also misused his office as he was the chairman of the selection board when his personal promotion was under discussion in Feb 2018 and that he was promoted to the post of the professor. Rahmanullah, lawyer for the VC, said the petition was not maintainable.

He said the issue pertained to the University of Malakand, so the petition had to be filed with the high court’s Mingora bench.

The lawyer also said the petitioner was not an aggrieved person in terms of Article 199 of the Constitution. The petitioner requested the court to strike down the appointment of Dr Gul Zaman as the vice-chancellor of Malakand University by declaring it illegal. He also requested the court to declare all acts taken by the VC illegal.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2020