Teachers will wear black armbands, stage demonstrations outside Parliament House and press club. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
The teachers are expected don black armbands for the remainder of the week to mark their protest. Further, they have said that no meeting of the board of governors would be allowed until teachers are given their representation in it.
Moreover, faculty members are planning to put up protest banners in university premises in addition to staging demonstrations outside the Parliament house and the National Press Club.
This was decided during a general body meeting of the Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the varsity – a body which represents IIUI’s teaching faculty.
The issue has been raised after the board of trustees (BOT) of the varsity – which includes the foreign dignitaries and donors of the university - during a recent meeting deferred the single-point-agenda of the moot – to create a new seat on the varsity’s board of governors (BOG) for a professor.
During Sunday’s ASA meeting, chaired by the body’s president Professor Dr Abdul Jalil, the teachers decided that unless the varsity fulfils the demands made by teachers to be granted a representation in the decision-making forum, then they would consider boycotting classes, examination and admission duties.
Prof Dr Jalil said that following a similar protest by ASA members last year, the university had decided to create a seat for one professor on the BOG and the matter was supposed to be presented before the BOT – the supreme decision-making body of IIUI. That board, however, deferred the matter.
“[The] board of trustees meeting, which includes all foreign dignitaries, held last week after a gap of seven years, which means we have to wait for another seven years to get the approval for teachers’ representation from the board of trustees?” Prof Dr Jalil asked.
He condemned the deferment, adding that condemnation letters in this regard have been written to the university president and rector.
“We believe these are delaying tactics and such delaying tactics of university’s authorities about teachers’ representation on the board of governors will not be tolerated,” he declared.
ASA General Secretary Dr Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhary accused the varsity’s authorities of clinging on to power which is why they were reluctant to give teachers their legal and just representation in such an important decision-making forum.
To substantiate his claim that teachers should be on the BoG of a varsity, he presented the Punjab university, Quaid-i-Azam University, Bahauddin Zakria University and the Allama Iqbal Open University as examples where multiple teachers including a professor, an associate professor an assistant professor and a lecturer were part of the respective board of governors or syndicate.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 8th, 2017.
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