KU admin urged not to house census staff at university

The Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) on Tuesday strongly rejected the proposal of accommodating census staff at the new building of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Karachi University.

They urged the varsity management not to lend any place within the KU premises for census staff.

The teachers' representative body expressed their concerns over the letter released by the Deputy Commissioner Office, East, in which the KU administration had been informed that new building of Faculty of Pharmacy, KU, would be used to accommodate the staff who would be supervising the upcoming general census.

They claimed this decision was taken without any consultation with the management of the KU and the ground realities of the varsity were also overlooked.

KUTS President Professor Dr Shakeel Farooqui said the army would facilitate the federal and provincial governments during the upcoming general census.

He, however, claimed the KU had been compelled to make arrangements for boarding and lodging of army troops that would be used for the upcoming population census drive.

Otherwise, he said, such arrangement for accommodating the personal for census movement should be made by the government.

Dr Farooqui said around 1,800 students were enrolled in the Faculty of Pharmacy only and during semester presence of outsiders would surely create a lot of problems for teachers and students.

“We cannot stop the classes and laboratory work for the upcoming census. If we suspend the academic activities, it will affect the whole varsity.”

According to him, the teachers want to register their concerns over this matter and strongly believe that academic buildings could not be handed over to anyone.

He said teachers had unanimously decided to take stand in this regard. He further said the teaching community had urged the vice chancellor of the varsity not to lend any place regardless what excuses and promises the government offered. 

He said the Faculty of Pharmacy recently got a new building for its students to accommodate increasing numbers of its degree receipts and the teaching faculty would not support presence of any outsider.

Farooqui observed that handing over the building meant that classes would be suspended and thousands of students would have to suffer an unnecessary academic break.

In this regard, KU VC Professor Dr Ajmal Khan presided a meeting on Tuesday morning which was attended by the deans, faculties of science, social sciences, management sciences, law, education and Islamic studies, three syndicate members and KUTS officials.

The meeting unanimously decided that no academic block in the university could be spared to house the personnel deployed for the census as the teaching and learning activities could not be suspended in the university. The KU VC has sent a regret letter to the DC East.