Peshawar High Court seeks replies on plea against teachers holding university admin posts

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought responses from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and vice chancellors of public sector universities in the province on a petition challenging the appointment of teaching staff to full-time administrative positions in universities.

A bench comprising Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan and Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali directed all respondents, including the provincial government through the higher education secretary and the vice chancellors of public universities, to file their comments within one month on the petition submitted by lawyer Mohammad Asif Babar.

In his petition, Babar asked the court to declare unlawful the appointment of teachers to administrative offices including registrar, treasurer, deputy registrar, director planning and development, and controller of examinations. He also requested directives for the respondents to fill such posts with competent administrative officers and to stop assigning full-time administrative duties to members of the teaching faculty.

The petitioner further sought court directions for the higher education department and other provincial authorities to take immediate corrective steps to ensure governance, accountability and compliance with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act, 2012, and the universities statutes across all public sector universities in the province.

Petition cites universities law

Appearing in person, the petitioner told the court that the KP Universities Act, 2012, enacted to regulate the affairs of public sector universities in the province, separately defined administrative officers, academics and teaching faculty under its various provisions. He said Section 28 of the law provided for statutes to regulate university affairs and prescribe the terms and conditions of service, as well as the criteria and procedure for appointments of employees, officers and teaching staff, subject to the provisions of the act.

Babar also argued that the law had been amended in 2016 to address the issue of assigning administrative charge to teachers, when Section 17-A was inserted. According to the petition, that provision made it clear that teachers and officials other than administrative officers could not be posted to administrative positions.

“All administrative positions in universities shall be filled by the Administrative Officers of the university on regular basis and in no case teachers and officials other than Administrative Officers shall be posted on these positions. In case suitable candidate is not available from amongst the Administrative Officers, the University shall ensure immediate appointment on such post in the prescribed manner”, he stated.

The petitioner contended that despite that legal provision, key administrative positions in most public universities had for many years remained without regular appointees. He stated that posts including registrar, treasurer, director finance, controller of examination, auditors and other essential offices were being managed on acting or additional-charge basis by teachers.