Amendments to Universities Act rejected

The Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) has rejected the proposed amendments to the Universities Act and urged the government to stop experimenting with education.

Speaking a news conference here on Monday, provincial president of the student organisation Shakeel Ahmad said that majority of the public sector universities had gone bankrupt due to the flawed policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. “By making more amendments to the act, the remaining autonomy of the universities would be done away with,” he said.

Accompanied by campus president of the organisation Shafiqur Rahman, general secretary Salman Bin Ihsan and others, the IJT leader said that the provincial government always made legislation in haste.

“The casual attitude has badly affected the universities,” he said. Shakeel said that under the proposed law the government wanted to end the representation of teachers in syndicates of the universities. This, he said, would be detrimental for the universities.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leadership had promised to restore student unions and give representation to the students in the statutory bodies of universities, but after coming to power they were depriving teachers of representation let alone giving the students their due rights.

The student leader said that the government wanted to do away with the position of pro-vice chancellor in the new law. “The post was created a few years back and now it was being abolished, which is beyond understanding,” he said.

He said that under the proposed amendments, a person having a Master’s degree could be appointed as vice-chancellor while the condition of the PhD was being abolished.