A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on appeals of Punjab government and others challenging a decision wherein appointment process for vice chancellors of four universities as well as the appointment of the acting heads was set aside. Earlier, Advocate General Punjab (AGP) Shakilur Rehman Khan in his concluding arguments submitted that the law empowered the provincial government to appoint the heads of public sector universities.
He said after the 18th amendment the subject of "education" was devolved to provinces, therefore the appointment of vice chancellors at the universities fell within the provincial domain. He said amendments were made in the laws relating to various public sector universities through "The Public Sector Universities (Amendment) Act, 2012", wherein an elaborate process of appointment of VCs was provided. The AGP further argued that the appointment of VCs did not fall within the domain of the Higher Education Commission (HEC-federal) under "Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2002" and was also not covered under Item 12 of Part-II of the Federal Legislative List of the Constitution. He asked the court to set aside the verdict of the single bench.
The division bench headed by Syed Mansoor Ali Shah reserved the judgement and asked lawyers of all parties involved in the case to also submit their written arguments. The bench had already suspended the single bench decision. However, the bench had not allowed the government's appointed acting VCs at Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University, University of Sargodha and Nawaz Sharif University Engineering & Technology, Multan to continue with their offices.
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