Fuuast teachers baton-charged by police, 20 released after detention

Teachers of the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) faced the Sindh police’s wrath on Monday as they were baton-charged during a protest held at the varsity’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal campus and 20 of them were detained.

The detained teachers were, however, released after negotiations were held at the District East deputy commissioner’s office. The detained teachers included Prof Dr Iftikhar Ahmed Tahiri, Dr Irfan Aziz, Dr Asghar Dashti and Prof Dr Arif Zubair.

According to the secretary general of Fuuast’s teachers association, Dr Irfan Aziz, the educators were holding a protest inside the varsity after Fuuast Senate deputy chair Javid Ashraf tried to present a resolution in Monday’s senate meeting for releasing salary of former acting vice chancellor Dr Sulaiman D Muhammad, who was removed from his position after the Islamabad High Court issued orders for restoration of permanent VC Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal on September 15 2017.

“Instead of discussing matters on the agenda, the official tabled a resolution for release of the former acting vice chancellor’s salary, which had nothing to do with the meeting proceedings,” said Dr Iqbal.

Subsequently, the senate members resisted his attempt to start the discussion on an irrelevant issue, he said, adding that the members were compelled to walk out from the meeting.

To register their protest, he said, the teachers staged a peaceful demonstration inside the campus and demanded of the Pakistan president, who is also the varsity chancellor, to remove the Fuuast Senate deputy chairman, accusing him of creating administrative chaos in the

varsity. But the varsity management called the police force which baton-charged the protesting teachers to disrupt the demonstration, he added.

Around 20 teachers were detained and later moved to the DC office from Aziz Bhatti police station for dialogues. “The arrested teachers have been released. But we will continue our protest until the varsity chancellor resolve the long-standing issues and appoint permanent administration at the varsity,” he added.

FAPUASA secretary general Prof Dr Shakeel Farooqi condemned the arrest of varsity teachers including females “who were peacefully protesting against the attempt to bring back the disposed vice chancellor Zafar Iqbal who was once again removed from his post on December 7, 2017, on corruption charges.”

On the other hand, Fuuast public relation officer Irum Fazal said holding a peaceful protest was the right of teachers. “The management called in the police to maintain law and order situation inside the campus.” However, she claimed that no teacher was arrested by the police.