LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court withdrew its order in vice chancellors’ appointment case to the extent of seven public sector universities where permanent heads were already appointed before the matter of other four varsities was challenged before the court. These universities include: Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Government College University, Lahore, University of Education, Lahore, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Government Sadiq Degree College for Women University, Bahawalpur, Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan. Earlier, the bench on December 19, 2016 suspended a single bench order that struck appointment process initiated by the Punjab government for vice chancellors (VCs) at the Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University, University of Sargodha and Nawaz Sharif University Engineering & Technology, Multan. As an interim measure, the bench had also appointed acting VCs at the four universities making selection from a list of senior most professors given by the government. The bench had also observed that the fate of the VCs already appointed at the seven universities on August 27, 2015 would act provisionally and their fate would be subjected to final decision of the government’s intra-court appeal against the single bench verdict. During the hearing of petitions on Thursday, Punjab Advocate General Shakilur Rehman Khan pointed out that the matter of the seven universities was “mistakenly” made part of the proceedings in hand. At this the bench withdrew its order to extent of the seven varsities and sought a detailed reply from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) till January 16. The bench is hearing an inter-court appeal filed on behalf of the Punjab government, challenging removal of vice chancellors of four universities, including Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University, University of Sargodha and Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology Multan. Earlier, a single bench comprising Justice Shahid Karim on December 1 declared appointment of four VCs Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran, Prof Dr Uzma Qureshi, Prof Dr Nazra Sultana and Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid at the Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University, University of Sargodha and the Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology Multan, respectively, illegal.