LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday sought a reply from the chancellor on a petition challenging the appointment of ‘influential’ candidates as professors of the School of Communication Studies (SCS) of the Punjab University (PU).

Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi also directed a provincial law officer to submit the decision by the chancellor/the governor on a representation made by the petitioner – Associate Professor Dr Shabbir Sarwar.

Earlier, petitioner’s counsel Safdar Shaheen Pirzada told the court that the chancellor had not submitted his reply since 2022 when the petition was filed. He said a representation filed by the petitioner was still pending with the chancellor.

The judge directed the government’s lawyer to submit a reply on behalf of the governor to the petition and about the decision on the representation within a week.

The petition challenged the appointment of Dr Sawera Shami, Dr Mian Hannan and Dr Lubna Zaheer.

The petitioner alleged favouritism, misuse of authority, violation of rules and regulations in the selection process i.e. from the advertisement to the issuance of appointment notification.

He said the meeting to recommend the names of the panel of foreign experts/referees was never convened in violation of university rules and regulations.

The petitioner stated that he had been ignored despite standing first in terms of author research publications and professional experience among all the candidates. He asked the court to set aside the impugned appointments for being made in an illegal manner.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2024