Impasse ends: SU VC goes on medical leave, teachers resume work

Faculty assured that police and Rangers will be removed once 100 security men hired.

KARACHI: There was a breakthrough in the standoff between the Sindh University vice chancellor and teachers on Tuesday when Dr Nazir Mughal was sent on medical leave as a judicial committee investigates the murder of the director of student affairs.

The teachers had boycotted work for nearly a month after Prof (retd) Bashir Ahmed Chanur was murdered. He was killed shortly after several students were rusticated. No arrests have been made yet.

On Tuesday, a delegation of protesting teachers met the governor’s adviser on higher education Dr Noshad Sheikh. All the VCs of public universities attended.

The teachers were represented by the Sindh University Teachers Association’s Dr Azhar Ali Shah, Arfana Mallah, and Naimatullah Laghari, and the president of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association for Sindh.

SU Pro Vice Chancellor Dr Parveen Shah will manage the university as acting VC in Dr Mughal’s absence. “Almost all of the teachers’ demands were addressed but we’ll continue our campaign till the removal of the VC, the restoration of student union and the removal of the police and rangers from campus,” Mallah said.

They were assured that the police and Rangers would be removed after 100 security personnel were recruited. Governor House would write the federal government on this.

The judicial committee will not only investigate the killing but will also look into the allegations of mismanagement.

SU Registrar Akhter Memon told The Express Tribune that Dr Mughal was on medical leave for four days. “He was already not feeling well,” he said. According to him, Dr Mughal and the late Prof Chanur were already working on a campus security plan and Dr Chanur was examining student welfare association by-laws. Therefore, Memon added, there was no need for the teachers to make such demands. “Dr Mughal’s removal is unjustified,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, the association held a protest on the main campus on Tuesday morning and reiterated their demand for the removal of the VC. Several students on motorcycles also gathered on campus and chanted slogans against the association and teachers, demanding academic work go back to normal.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2012.