No classes held in public varsities over ‘govt interference’

Teachers’ associations across Sindh observe black day against political appointments

Karachi

All public universities in the province observed a black day on Monday against appointments made by the chief minister under the controversial Sindh Universities Amendment Act 2013 and the subsequent changes made to the act in the recent weeks.

No classes were held in government universities on Monday as teachers’ associations from Larkana to Karachi supported the call of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association of observing Black Day.

The universities protested against the “unnecessary interference” in their affairs by the government and chief minister through the Sindh Universities Amendment Act 2013. The faculty demanded that the Sindh government withdraw all controversial appointments made through this controversial act.

They warned that if the provincial government did not act upon their suggestions, FAPUASA will expand its protest across Pakistan to protect the universities’ academic autonomy.

The faculty of government universities in the city gathered in the Arts Lobby at Karachi University to record their protest where they made a display of banners and placards to express their angst.

The president of Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS), Prof Dr Shakeel Farooqui, remarked that unfortunately the Sindh government had been unable to understand that faculties of higher educational institutions were the actual stakeholders of universities, not officials of the government.

“Since the creation of Pakistan, not a single government has tried to interfere in the autonomous state of universities. One of the main reasons for that was that political interference would destabilise the standards and quality of education. But, ironically, this government has been trying to snatch those very powers so they can make irregularities more easily,” he said. “The provincial government should respect the autonomous status of universities and let them work according to their rules and regulations, rather than interfering unnecessarily.”

The president of NED University Teachers’ Association, Prof Dr Usman Ali Shah, said during the past three years the Sindh government has made a lot of promises and assurances of withdrawing this controversial act, but all of them proved to be a mere play of words.

“This is not good for anyone. Not for the provincial government or the education sector. There has been large-scale unrest among members of the teaching community due to which engineering and medical universities are on verge of destruction,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to KUTS secretary Moiz Khan, the faculty and teachers’ associations will soon gather in Nawabshah and then in Islamabad, to record their protest against the damaging decisions of Sindh government.

Talking to The News, the teachers also slammed backdoor appointments and other malafide measures adopted by the provincial government in public universities.

“We strongly condemn the direct intervention of CM Secretariat in the autonomous affairs of universities in Sindh. We stand hands in hands with the Sindh University Teachers Association (SUTA) and other associations against the appointment of the pro-vice chancellors at the University of Sindh. All teachers in the universities from Karachi to Larkana are united and ready to resist and fight for the rightful autonomy of universities,” remarked another protesting faculty member.

A few months ago, there was a similar crisis in public universities of the province on the same matter and government officials and teachers’ associations had deliberated at length to reach a solution. The teaching community under the aegis of FAPUASA had presented the Sindh government a set of recommendations that the former had promised to table in the provincial assembly. However, that never happened and the chief minister went on to appoint a pro-vice chancellor in the Sindh University a professor who was ranked 14th in the seniority list, without discussing the matter with the vice chancellor concerned or even the CM Secretariat.

Prior to this appointment, the chief minister had appointed a junior lecturer as the pro-vice chancellor of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University in Larkana, a registrar was directly appointed at the Dow Medical University while a professor was posted at the Liaquat University of Health Sciences.