PESHAWAR:December 22: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment in a writ petition by public sector universities challenging the jurisdiction of the court.

PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan had taken suo moto notice in context of the rules and regulations of all public sector universities of the province for not adopting the provincial government rules to fix only eight interview marks for all kinds of appointments and promotions in the universities.

The chief justice took notice of the writ petition by a candidate Mir Shah Ali, who had applied for the post of lecturer in the English Department at the Islamia College University. The candidate claimed that he had topped the written test, but the recruitment committee gave him zero marks in the interview despite being an experienced and qualified candidate. He complained that he was intentionally ignored and denied the position.

The court summoned registrars of all the public sector universities in the case to explain their rules and regulations for fixing interview marks for appointments in the universities.

In the meantime, the public sector universities including University of Peshawar (UoP), University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Islamia College University (ICU), Kohat University of Science and Technology, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan and Agriculture University Peshawar moved an application in the suo moto notice case and claimed that the high court had no jurisdiction to interfere in the matters of universities as they are independent institutions and could make their own rules and regulations.

Qazi Muhammad Anwar and Waseem-ud-Din Khattak appeared for the public universities and contended that the varsities were independent in their affairs and the high court and provincial government had no jurisdiction to interfere in their affairs. They also submitted that the universities were not bound to adopt the provincial government notification for fixing eight interview marks in case of appointments.The news.