KU fires five employees, withholds salaries of 11 others over absence

Karachi

The University of Karachi has fired five contractual employees and also withheld the salaries of 11 employees for remaining absent from their duties without permission, the university’s registrar said on Monday.

“The KU administration has terminated the services of five employees because they had failed to qualify the recently held selection boards,” said Professor Dr Moazam Ali Khan. “all of them were working in on a contractual basis in different departments.” The five employees included Shahzad Pervez, working as an assistant registrar, Syed Rashid Ali, an accounts officer, Azhar Khan, an assistant controller in enrolment section and DR settlement, Maqsood-us-Saqlain, a liaison officer at the audit office, and Muhammad Zohaib, an accounts officer.

The 11 employees whose salaries have been withheld over their absence without permission are Muhammad Atif of the enrolment section, Alamgir and Lavi Masih of the Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics, Umair Amin, Ghulam Mohiuddin and Abdul Haseeb of the engineering department, Mahmood Ahmed of the protocol and information office, Tabish Sultan of the audit office, Syed Wahid Raza of the communication network, and Arshad Ali Baig and Kamran Uddin of the accounts section.

The KU in a press release claimed that the decision to sacking the five contractual employees and withhold the salaries of 11 employees was made by the university’s administration on its own and without any “external influence” or “pressure”. However, Rangers had conducted a few raids at the university in first half of 2016 and arrested political activists at the campus. On July 14, the paramilitary force had written a letter to the KU registrar asking him to provide the details of employees who were not attending their offices.

Following the Rangers’ directives, the KU Registrar Office issued a circular giving three days’ time to all section heads to submit the lists of employees in their departments.