LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notices on a petition of the Punjab University registrar challenging a stay issued against appointment process of the new vice chancellor.

PUlegal adviser Advocate Awais Khalid argued before the court that Punjab Higher Education Department had the lawful jurisdiction to initiate process for the appointment of the new VC. He said the provincial government constituted search committees to fill vacant slots of VCs in all public sector universities under the law.

He said some individuals filed baseless petitions in the court against the appointment process without making the PU a necessary party to the cases. The legal adviser prayed to the court to withdraw astay order issued against the appointment process.

Justice Shahid Karim heard the arguments and issued notices to other parties for Jan 13.

Sami Uzair Khan and two other faculty members of the university had assailed the appointment process for new vice chancellor.

They were of the view that the government unlawfully advertised the post of the VC through higher education department and also set criteria for the aspirants. They said the provincial government had no jurisdiction in the matter as Higher Education Commission was the authority to make appointments of the vice chancellors.

Justice Karim had stayed the impugned process of the appointment on Dec 10.

ICAP CASE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the federal government andInstitute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) on a petition questioning alleged malpractices of the institute and foreclosing training opportunities for ACCA and ICEAW students to work at its approved accountancy firms.

An ACCA professional student, Safwan Saleem, filed the petition saying a number of students belonging to other accounting professional were suffering due to the `discriminatory` practices of ICAP.

As Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah took up the petition, Advocate Sheraz Zaka argued on behalf of the petitioner that ICAP was a statutorybodycreatedunderChartered Accountants Ordinance 1%1. He stated that in July 2012, ICAP issued a directive and ruled that students doing non-ICAP qualifications, like ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), would neither be able to enroll withany accounting firm, nor such students would be able to do training with any accounting firm approved by the ICAP.

He said Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) set aside the directive but ICAP obtained a stay order from the Lahore High Court.

The counsel argued that with the impugned directive of the ICAP and the stay order, the students from other professional bodies like ACCA were still suffering for the past two years. He said ACCA and ICAP were competitors and the latter wanted to grab the market of the former.

He asked the court to dismiss the petition of ICAP and revoked the stay order so that ACCA students could get enrolled in accountancy firms for gaining training experience.

Justice Shah directed the respondents to submit their replies by Jan 19.