Teachers’ concerns included in BoG meeting agenda: IIUI rector

ASA asked to refile demands after correcting clerical mistakes for inclusion in agenda

ISLAMABAD: Dr Masoom Yasinzai, the rector of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) has included concerns of the varsity’s faculty in the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the university’s Board of Governors.

The exclusion of certain concerns from the agenda raised by the teachers had been flayed by faculty members on Sunday. In a statement issued by Dr Yasinzai on Tuesday, he reiterated that the varsity was providing facilities to its faculty members.

He added that concerns of teachers were “not factual because all the issues which they had raised had been included in the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the BoG.”

Referring to the IIUI Ordinance of 1985, Dr Yasinsaid said that the “rector was bound to oversee the affairs of the university and to ensure that the provisions of the ordinance, the statutes, the regulations, the rules, policies and directions of the Board of Trustees are properly executed and all decisions are taken on merit.”

Meanwhile, the rector reiterated the assurances of including concerns of teachers in the agenda during a meeting with representatives of teachers and the university academic staff association on Tuesday.

The representatives of the Academic Staff Association (ASA) was led by its president Dr Zafar Iqbal accompanied by office bearers of the body and senior faculty members.

While talking to the faculty representatives, Dr Yasinzai explained to them that he did not exclude the teachers’ demands from the agenda, rather he had asked to make a proper file and correct the clerical mistakes in the points related to teachers in the agenda.

Dr Yasinzai advised representatives of teaching community to resubmit the agenda points after redressing some clerical mistakes ahead of the meeting on February 10.

"I have never been against the teaching community since I was once a teacher myself. Rather, I have always worked for the welfare of the teachers and the many tangible steps I have taken in this regard are evidence for it" he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2017.