IHC sets aside appointment of Fuuast vice chancellor.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday set aside the appointment of vice chancellor of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast).

'Since respondent No. 5 [Dr S. Altaf Hussain, VC Fuuast] does not meet the criteria prescribed in the advertisement, he is not eligible to be appointed to the post of Vice Chancellor,' said an IHC division bench in its order on a petition filed by Prof Dr Hafiz Mohammad Iqbal.

Dr Iqbal filed an intra-court appeal against the March 26 judgement of an IHC single-bench which had dismissed his petition challenging the appointment of Dr Hussain as Fuuast VC.

He cited the president secretariat, establishment secretary, convener of the search committee Shahid Shafique, the federal education and professional training ministry, Dr Hussain, Dr MoeenAuddin Ahmad and registrar of Fuuast as respondents.

The appellant submitted that Fuuast Islamabad had advertised the post of vice chancellor and one of the conditions for the applicant was that he should fulfil the qualifying criteria for professors set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

His counsel stated that Dr Iqbal along with other candidates applied for the said post but Dr Hussain was selecAted and appointed as VC.

He submitted that his client challenged the appointment on the grounds that candidate did not fulfil the criteria set by the HEC for appointment as professor and the professor must have had 15 research publications with at least five publications in the last five years in HEC-recognised journals.

However, the writ petition was dismissed by the judge-in-chamber, he added.

The bench comprising Justice Aamer...