KARACHI:
Unfortunately, faculty members of one of the largest public sector universities of Pakistan, the University of Karachi, are protesting on the campus over an unjustified and illogical, rather criminal, delay in the selection boards outcome pending since 2019.
Despite many irrational arguments from the secretary of universities and boards, after successive demands of faculty and through judicial intervention — in response to the appeal from one faculty member, who was on the verge of retirement at that time — one selection board of 2019 was held after the affected faculty member got retired. But then again there is no news so far as the outcome of that selection board is concerned. No meeting of the KU syndicate has been held for more than a year. This has resulted in chaos among the faculty members waiting for their appointment in the new cadre after fulfilling all the prerequisites. It should be stressed that every teaching post in a university is a selection post. Thus the delay has demotivated the faculty members serving in one cadre for 10-15 years.
Some of the teachers waiting for their justified preferment have already retired, while some are retiring within a few months. The irony is that even after calling a symbolic hunger strike by a committee formed by university teachers, the authorities have remained non-responsive as they either lack interest or give lowest priority to higher education.
Under such extreme cases, when the universities have to be run under the orders of officers with no knowledge of the functionalities, it is impossible to groom students to become valuable citizens. The demand from society to raise the standards is also foolish when the faculty themselves are in crisis. The university autonomy needs to be restored, Vice Chancellors must be empowered, and the faculty’s justified demands must be addressed. This is essential especially when things are moving towards a closed road, as indicated by the symbolic hunger strike by the faculty.
Dr Intikhab Ulfat
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2022.
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