Family plans to move SHC as KU’s Dr Riaz Ahmed goes ‘missing’

Karachi: Associate Professor Dr Riaz Ahmed, who has been working as chairman at the applied chemistry department of Karachi University, went missing on Friday evening.

His family told The News on Saturday, Dr Ahmed had been on campus till 10pm on Friday. At that time, he had informed his wife that he was coming home, but he didn’t. Since then, his mobile phone has remained switched off.

“Some activists have received messages from him in various WhatsApp groups on Saturday morning, but it seems that those messages were not scripted by Dr Riaz; someone else used his cell phone for texting,” a family member said.

The family then contacted a lawyer to file a petition in the Sindh High Court for his safe recovery.

“We have already communicated to Karachi University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan and requested him to initiate a legal process for ascertaining Dr Riaz’s whereabouts.”

The KU spokesperson told reporters that high-ups of the varsity had been informed about the missing professor and they were trying to contact law enforcement agencies.

Associate Prof Dr Osama Shafiq, who is one of his close colleagues, said that during the past one year, the third teacher of Karachi University had gone missing, which was an attack on the freedom of expression and the right to know.

He said this sort of actions had not only created anger amongst the KU’s academicians but also raised many questions about the role of democratic governments and institutions. “Those who are silent on the illegal detentions of teachers would be treated in the same way.”

Another close friend of Dr Ahmed and activist, Sartaj Khan, said that the professor raised his voice for every oppressed person, especially for labourers, minorities and hapless ethnic groups. “Dr Riaz has played his role to stimulate a movement for the recovery of Shia missing persons and it may be a reason of his detention.”

The Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) convened an emergency meeting on the disappearance of Dr Ahmed.

The participants of the meeting, which was chaired by Prof Dr Jamil Hassan Kazmi, said such actions had been observed at the KU over the last one year and they made the environment depressing.

The society announced that the entry test for MPhil and PhD would be conducted on Sunday, but the teachers would not check the answer scripts until the provincial government recovered Dr Ahmed.

It said the teachers would also wear black bands around their arms and hold an on-campus protest.

The Karachi University Teachers' Forum expressed its deep concerns over the mysterious disappearance of Dr Ahmed. The members of the forum also showed their solidarity with the family of the missing professor and demanded his immediate recovery.

KUTF senior member Prof Dr S M Taha said the freedom of expression and other human rights given in the constitution were the integral rights of all citizens of Pakistan.

He said suppression over expression and dialogue would further put strain on the already suffocating environment on the campus, and coercion and suppression would not improve the situation. He suggested that the Karachi University Teacher Society should arrange a series of civil-military and academia dialogues on campus to improve the situation.

The KUTF further said that the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association should form a human rights watch wing so that the teachers could collectively raise their voice at the national level in such cases.