KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed a provincial law officer to obtain a report from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) about the foreign qualifications of candidates recommended to be appointed as chairmen in various educational boards in the province.

A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam also sought the transcript and footage or recording of the interviews of the eight candidates, who have been declared successful.

Three identical petitions were filed in the SHC and cited the chief secretary Sindh, the universities & board department, the search committee and eight candidates retired bureaucrat Muhammad Misbah Tunio, Brigadier Syed Waseem Akthar, Dr Asif Ali Memon, Ghulam Hussain Soho, Mansoor Rajput, Musharraf Ali Rajput, Dr Rafiq Ahmed Chandio and Dr Zahid Ali Channar, who were shortlisted by the committee and their names forwarded to the chief minister for approval, as respondents in the petitions.

They submitted that later Brigadier Akhtar, the top-scoring candidate for the appointment of chairman to one of the eight educational boards of Sindh, had withdrawn his name and thus a new summary was sent to the chief minister.

The petitioners asserted that the search committee could not select the candidates as it was only responsible for the selection and appointment of vice chancellors for universities.

At the outset of the hearing, the bench issued a notice to an additional advocate general Sindh (AAG) in a fresh petition and directed the counsel for the petitioner to provide a copy of the petition to the law officer.

A lawyer in two other petitions pointed out that the final summary for the recommended candidates was approved on Feb 20, but the deliberations preceding the summary had not been placed on record.

The bench directed the AAG to produce the deliberations/minutes of the meeting preceding the approval of summary on Feb 20.

It also asked the respondents to file the transcript and the CD recording of the interviews of eight successful/recommended candidates till April 17.

The AAG will obtain a report from the HEC with regard to the foreign qualifications of the recommended candidates, it added.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2025