Sindh governor will not assent to new varsities law, claims JI Karachi chief

Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair does have serious reservations over the recently-passed Sindh Universities and Institutes Laws (Amendment) Law-2018 as he has given us the assurance that he will not give his assent to it, claimed Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Monday.

Rehman, the chief of JI Karachi, stated this while speaking to reporters after he led a four-member delegation of his party to meet Zubair at Governor House to discuss the passing of the controversial bill by the Sindh Assembly, which strips the governor of his conventional authorities as the chancellor and grants overarching powers to the chief minister over the administrative affairs of public universities and degree-awarding institutes.

The JI delegation urged Governor Zubair to not give his nod of approval to the varsities law as it would be tantamount to usurping the autonomy and independence of public sector universities in the province. It also informed the governor that undue political and government interference in the affairs of public sector universities would badly affect education being provided by them and also affect their academic environment.

The JI leader told reporters that his party had already rejected the law and would not allow such an “anti-public law” to be imposed on people. He said a movement had been launched to preserve the autonomy of Sindh’s public universities and the JI has planned a convention in this regard on April 8.

Stating that the Sindh’s government got the law approved by the assembly in negation of the educational policy of Pakistan Peoples Party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he said, “The PPP founder had granted freedom and autonomy to the universities, while the present Sindh government has attempted to wrest away this autonomy by imposing the new law,” he said.

Rehman claimed that the Sindh governor had supported his party’s viewpoint on the matter. However, incidentally, an official handout issued by the Governor House on Monday regarding Zubair’s meeting with the JI delegation, made no mention of the governor’s reaction to the Universities Law as claimed by the JI Karachi chief, even though the meeting was held exclusively to discuss the law.

According to the handout, the governor informed the JI delegation of the steps initiated by the federal government to develop the major cities of Sindh. The handout quoted the Sindh governor as saying that he had been meeting representatives of different political parties in Karachi in order to take them into confidence and consult them as being important stakeholders about steps initiated by the federal government to develop Karachi and restore peace in the city.

The handout quoted the JI Karachi chief as saying that he appreciated the role of Sindh governor in availing the full support and assistance of the federal government to restore peace in Karachi and develop the city.