KUTS warns govt of ‘extreme action’ if issues not resolved by Sept 9

Teachers’ body to observe ‘black day’, will suspend academic activities after 11am today

Karachi

Academic activities at the University of Karachi (KU) would be suspended after 11am, on Thursday (today), as the Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) would observe a Black Day at the campus in order to get the provincial government to address the varsity’s long-pending issues before September 9.

Announcing to hold a rally inside the university, the KUTS warned the university’s administration to not force the teaching community to take extreme measures and meet their demands within the given deadline.

Reminding the Sindh Chief Minister of his promises to pay special attention to education and health sectors, KUTS President Prof Dr Shakeel Farooqui said we were yet to witness an implementation.

He urged CM Murad Ali Shah to visit government-run universities of Sindh to learn about problems of the teaching and non-teaching staff so they could be resolved on a priority basis.

The teachers’ body further demanded controversial amendments to the Sindh Universities Law, 2013 to be withdrawn with immediate effect.

The Sindh Assembly had amended the Sindh Universities Act, 1972 in August 2013 to exclusively authorise the provincial government to run the varsity’s affairs instead of the province’s governor and the varsity’s administration.

KU’s teaching community believed the act was aimed at politicising appointments at the varsity’s hierarchy including the posts of registrar, controller examination, chief accountant and others.

Immediate payment of grants promised by the Sindh government; withdrawal of appointments at all important positions and ensuring they were done through proper advertisement of posts were demanded by the teachers’ body.

The KU teachers also called for dissolving the provincial Higher Education Commission or suggested running it through consultation of senior and qualified teachers.

The KUTS further sought removal of all retired teachers, a serious inquiry against financial irregularities, political appointments and strict action against people found to be involved in it.

Varsity’s vice chancellor was demanded to be appointed on a full-time basis, while all other appointments were asked to be made on merit in order for the university’s affairs to be run smoothly. Further, annulment of all decisions made on ad-hoc grounds and temporary basis was also demanded.

Federal HEC was called for increasing university’s grants in accordance with the student-teacher ratio, while also demanding a 12-month salary for teachers. The Sindh government should pay the promised Rs350 million grant and increase KU’s annual grant to Rs1 billion with immediate effect, the KUTS demanded.

Capable director finance and an accounting expert was demanded to be appointed, whereas paying leave encashment to teachers and officers well before Eid-ul-Azha.

The KUTS warned that if the demands were not met the varsity would be shutdown; “It was better to suspend academic session rather than conduct classes which had no basic facilities, while rooftops of several classrooms were in a dilapidated condition, laboratories without proper equipment and libraries without proper book collection and research journals,” the KUTS president observed.

According to Dr Farooqui the negative impacts of the SUL (Amendment) Act, 2013 were quite visible now, he added that competent authority should fulfil promises made to the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) and other teaching bodies with respect to withdrawing controversial amendments to the law in order to protect the universities autonomous status.

Fapuasa meeting

Fapuasa’s Sindh chapter, on the other hand, announced to hold a meeting at the NED University on September 5 where teachers’ bodies would decide and future plan of action.

Vice president of Fapuasa’s federal body, Dr Kalim Ullah Bareach, endorsed Sindh chapter’s demands, asking the provincial government and HEC to immediately resolve the issues or face a country-wide strike otherwise.

The Fapuasa had previously also called for authority of appointing officials at top posts to be given to a syndicate – a representative body in each university; their other main demand concerned giving priority to the three most senior professors at a university for the posts of vice chancellor.