Transfer of Punjab university land to govt suspended
Court also summoned members of syndicate, which was responsible for selling the university land to govt
April 21, 2018
ISLAMABAD: The transfer of University of Punjab land to the provincial government was suspended after Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry took action against it on Saturday.
A two-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar, also summoned more details pertaining to the issue from the Punjab government.
During suo motu hearing on illegal appointments of vice-chancellors, the court ordered the Punjab government to immediately appoint a new vice-chancellor for Punjab university.
The provincial government asked the court for more time pertaining to the continuous appointment of the new vice-chancellor.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court's Lahore Registry had ordered the suspension of University of Punjab vice-chancellor Dr Zakaria Zakar.
The court also ordered that university’s senior-most professor should be appointed to serve as interim vice-chancellor.
During the court proceedings, the CJP questioned on whose authority the university agreed to give 80 Kanal of its land to the government.
The court also summoned the members of the syndicate that was responsible for selling the land. Later, the syndicate members had suspended their decision to transfer university land to government.
While addressing the syndicate, the top judge had remarked: “On whose authority did the syndicate ask the university for the land?” The court has been informed that the land was allotted for the construction of the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project, he added.
Chief Justice Nisar also questioned why hasn’t a continuous vice-chancellor been appointed at the university in the last 2.5 years. “Please inform us who is responsible for this,” he remarked.
It has been proven that the government does not appoint a continuous vice-chancellor so that it could enforce its legal and illegal requests, the CJP observed.
The court was later requested to review its order. To which, the CJP remarked: “The vice-chancellor should resign first and then the order will be reviewed.”
