Association vows to oppose unilateral change in Universities Act 2012

PESHAWAR: The Federation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Sector Universities Administrative Officers Association on Sunday declared that any unilateral change made to the Universities Act 2012 will be opposed.

It said that all constitutional and democratic measures would be taken to avert it to safeguard the interests of all the stakeholders of the universities.

This was stated in a joint declaration of the association after its general body meeting held at the Khyber Union Hall of the Islamia College University, Peshawar.

The meeting was attended by the administrative officers of different universities from across the province.

The federation demanded that instead of making changes to the Act, the government should implement it in letter and spirit.

The federation also demanded Governor Shah Farman and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to take notice of the violations of the act.

The president of the federation, Muhammad Ilyas Khan, said that the universities have been violating Section 17-A of the Act where teachers and other irrelevant persons were still working against administrative positions.

According to Section 17-A, no teacher and employees, other than administrative officers, can be posted to the administrative positions. The posting of teachers against administrative positions is a violation of the act and it has also affected the academic performance of the institutions adversely, he opined.

Muhammad Ilyas said that universities had serious academic and governance issues due to the violation of the act and the government shall not allow a few individuals to violate the law.

He said that if the government wants to amend the Act further, it should be done by taking all the stakeholders on board.

The federation also demanded the government to appoint permanent vice-chancellors in universities at the earliest.