Freedom to choose: Varsity teachers observe black day today

Public sector educators are protesting govt interference in university autonomy

KARACHI/HYDERABAD: The executive council of the Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) will be observing a black day, along with teachers of all public-sector universities in Sindh, on Monday April 18.

The step was taken after a meeting of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) was held on April 13 in Khairpur, Sindh against the intervention of the provincial government in the autonomy of universities.

It was decided at the FAPUASA meeting that classes will remain suspended in all public universities across the province, said KUTS president Dr Shakeel Farooqi. The universities where academic activities will be suspended include University of Karachi (KU), NED University of Engineering and Technology, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Jamshoro, Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam, Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering Science and Technology Nawabshah and University of Sindh, Hyderabad.



Teachers will wear black armbands in protest of unlawful appointments and intervention of the chief minister in the appointments in universities. In KU, all the teachers, along with NED University representatives, will gather in the arts lobby on Monday to mark their protest against the appointment of the pro-vice-chancellor (PVC) in the University of Sindh.

Teachers' representatives will also address the demonstration and sit in; their demands include the withdrawal of the recent amendments in the Sindh Universities Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, restoration of university autonomy and removal of wrongly appointed PVC in the University of Sindh.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th,  2016.