KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has issued notices to the chief secretary, secretary of the universities & boards department, vice chancellor of the University of Karachi and others on a lawsuit impugning the procedure to appoint the director of the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at KU.

Nadeem Ahmed and four other employees of Karachi University had approached the SHC against an advertisement, published on July 26, inviting applications for the post of ICCBS director.

The ICCBS is comprised of the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry and Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research.

After a preliminary hearing, a single-judge bench of the SHC comprising Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam stated in the order: “Learned counsel for plaintiffs has challenged the advertisement of defendants for induction of Director International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences. It is stated that due process as required was not fulfilled before issuing this advertisement. Issue notice to defendants for 20.09.2023.”

SHC issues notices to VC, HEC, incumbent director Iqbal Choudhary and others on suit against the ad released without ‘due process’

The lawyer for the plaintiffs submitted in the lawsuit that the defendants were carrying out the appointment process of the ICCBS director in a non-transparent manner and in violation of Article 240-B of the Constitution.

He submitted that the impugned advertisement said that the candidates’ age limit should be below 65 years with above 40 ‘h-index’.

The counsel stated that both the conditions were against the requirements of universities and Higher Education Commission (HEC).

He further submitted that the address of a laboratory was wrongly and malafidely mentioned in the impugned advertisement as the human resource office.

He contended that there was a ban on employment of retired government officials as well as a bar on temporary appointment and any extension in their services.

While referring to a para of an audit report of KU, prepared by the office of the director general of the Sindh audit in 2020, the lawyer submitted that the reappointment of a retired professor as director of the ICCBS was in violation of the University of Karachi Act 1972 and Sindh Universities Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 as well as the instructions of the Supreme Court.

He alleged that one of the defendants, Dr Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary, had been serving as the ICCBS director for the past 17 years without fulfilling any codal and legal formalities.

He said that he was given four-year extension following his retirement in September 2019 by the then acting vice chancellor of the KU after bypassing the forum of the Senate and Syndicate of the university.

The counsel said in the lawsuit that besides holding the post of the director of the ICCBS, Dr Choudhary was also severing as the coordinator general at the Comstech.

He alleged that two senior faculty members, Dr Ishtiaque and Dr Karman Azeem, had left the ICCBS after around 20 years of services due to “unsupported behaviour of Dr Choudhary”.

The counsel further alleged that Dr Choudhary and HEJ’s patron-in-chief Dr Atta-ur-Rehman had allegedly terminated the services of many highly qualified foreign graduated scholars.

The lawyer stated that the first cause of action started on Sept 19, 2019 when a retired professor was appointed the director of the ICCBS and now the impugned advertisement.

Citing the Sindh chief secretary, secretary of the universities & board department, KU vice chancellor, HEC chairman, KU registrar, Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, Dr Choudhary and several others as defendants, the plaintiff contended that a comprehensive grievance application was made to the HEC chairman in this regard, but no proper action had been taken yet.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2023