Only a few students from rural Sindh are rejected, said Karachi University a day after MPAs demanded it open two campuses because young people from the countryside are being ignored.
“The policy adopted by the university is very flexible for students from rural Sindh,” said KU’s admissions director Prof. Dr Khalid Iraqi, while rejecting the allegations. “A large number of students who apply for admission from rural Sindh are accommodated and only a few are rejected.” KU had a separate quota for them, according to which nearly 60 students were enrolled every year. Otherwise open merit prevails, but here too preference is given to students from Karachi. A total of 4,500 students were admitted this year to the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes.
The university does not have a quota for students from Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir or Punjab. He said that contrary to the claims made by MPA Humera Alwani, the university only had a quota for students from Sindh and Balochistan.
“Apart from these quotas, the university has a category system which gives admission on merit to students from Karachi or who have studied in Karachi,” he said. “They get preference under the ‘K’ category. But then the university also gives preference to students from Sindh under the ‘S’ category.” He added that students from other parts of the country got admission if there were seats in the departments.
The university’s new vice chancellor Dr Muhammad Qaiser said he knew nothing about the business.
The political angle
Pakistan Peoples Party’s Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro said that assigning quotas was not the solution. “We demand equal opportunities for all students,” he said.
According to Mandhro, when Governor Rule was imposed in 1997, the legislators of the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) passed a law which stated that a new university in any district would open at least two campuses in other districts.
He claimed that when Arbab Ghulam Rahim was the chief minister, the MQM moved a resolution that universities in Karachi should be reserved for students from Karachi. Mandhro said that even though the PPP’s resolution did not receive any direct confrontation this time, they did get the hint that their coalition partners were not happy.
MQM’s Sardar Ahmed said that the party had no problem with two new KU campuses. “We protested because the words ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ were used,” he said. “The resolution was bound to restart the urban-rural rift that the MQM has been trying to eliminate.”
Ahmed did not remember the 1997 resolution.
According to Ahmed, although the assembly had adopted the resolution, they had to remember that the university was governed by a chancellor and they would have to check if they have the funds to run another campus or not.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2012.
COMMENTS (30)
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Again I wonder... how come the so called nationalists are serving there ethnicities by promoting corruption and denying merit???
WAKE UP! Look where ur Anti-Merit Campaigns and short cuts have brought Pakistan to! An Abyss!
Our Prophet PBUH clearly said that one who dies for nationalism isnt amonst us!
Now decide for urself where u wanna be???
With Altaf Hussain, Dr. Qadir Magsi, Paleejo, Bugtis, Wali Khans, Shahi Syeds, Maris...??? Come on keep on sinking Pakistan and even ur own ethnicities
@Anonimous & Doctor ( thank to the quota system )
There are hoardes of "Doctors" and "Engineers " get "produced " from Interieor Sindh every year ( namstem quota system ) .In fact every other nationalist leader of interior Sindh is a "Doctor" of medicine !!!!
Whereas in the field of internationally recognized and rigorous merit based certifications like CA,ACMA,ACCA ,CFA you will find alomost an invisble size of Sindhis Guess why .
So you see , where has these quota systems have brought your people to ?
Talk about your kins who migrated to the other side and flourishing in India without the crutch of any "quota" system .While you are trying to wriggle on to this abusrd quota system to get a "degree" and ultimatley landing on a govt job depriving the rightful and desrving people .
The present day Karachi was what 60 yrs back and what it is now ,is due to the fact of the immigrants , where were you people then ? When Kolachi turned in Karachi by virtue of the migrants effforts , you people woke up in the morning and started claiming to hand over the cake whihc you never baked .
School life has the most important part in any one's professional life to come. The problem lies in the fact that there are no good schools in interior sindh. Reason? Has karachi to do something in that? Second is the approach. A karachi wala will eat onions to send his children to a good school so that the foundations of his child's future are secure!. A typical Sindhi mentality is to ignore schooling, and use all available "resources" like political influences to get his child good marks in board examinations. People like Dr. Tunio on this blog must be doing the same thing.
Based on these good intermediate results obtained from illegal means, these people expect to get admissions to universities that mostly follow pure merit. When this doesnt happen, they turn ethnic with stupid comments!
Mr Anonymous, They are just not my cousin, your Grand parents were also part of the same country, they didnt come down from moon in 1947. I dont give a damn what people in India are doing, the fact is education system in Sindh has been destroyed by qouta system. Quota system on Finance is understandable for underdeveloped areas, but quota in admission and jobs is more harmful to ethnic Sindhi people rather than us. Also getting a Karachi Domicile is also very easy. I and majority of Karachiites oppose the Quota system whether its in favor of Rural Sind, or even if (asper your claim, which I think is false) favor of Karachiites. There should be no Quotas on education admission. Period. By the way by your analogy, in order for you to prosper you will have to leave PAkistan... so think before you make stupid analogies.
@Saad Ullah: it is area quota system you have to be from karachi not only this but educated in karachi and perferably your father should have domicile from Karachi check the policy
@Salman Orangiwala: @Syed Read Sacchar commission of India and see how your cousins are doing there? lower than Shooders. it is fact!!!!! Why, just ask yourself . could you have been one of them !!!! may be..
This is called luck that your parents settled in Sindh urban center. If Steve jobs has stayed with his biological father, he may have died working in McDonald or running halal meat shop in Michigan.
@dr ali tunio:
From your earlier disingenuous hyperbolic comment and projection.
and then the hilarious hypocrisy and your own bigotry.
They're all local Pakistan citizens now. Pakistan is for Pakistanis. You're 65 years too late, 'doctor'. Would it be fair if it was rephrased and you were told Karachi is for Karachites only, not for Sindhis, due to new demographic realities?
Was going to say something in support of the quota system for rural Sindh...changed my mind. Really didn't help yourself there.
@ Hameedullah, We Karrachiites are not stopping Sindh from Growing, why are Rest of the Sindhi stopping us Karacchites (Sindhis, Punjabis Pukhtoons, Beharis Memons, Balochs etc ) from earning?? Open Merit is not Against Sindhi people. On the contrary Qouta system has destroyed Sindhi people, and killed their willingness to learn and compete, when they know they can get job because of the redicoulously high ammount of qouta reserved for them by govt, they just need to get degree on paper to get the job regardless of their personal potential. Sindhi People are not at fault here. You start to give free to any people, they will stop learning how to fish. Please Stand up against this system. Punjab has a very good system as compared to us in Sindh because theres no Qouta there, its all open merit.
the stupid quota system for jobs and education installed by bhutto should end.
Students from interior Sindh have quota in medical colleges of Karachi BUT students from Karachi do not have any quota in medical colleges of interior Sindh
I would like to ask Sindhi nationalists to kindly comment on this discrimination against Karachi students as well !
Medical colleges in Punjab have open merit. Anyone can get admission in any college based on true open merit. Why are Sindhi nationalists afraid of implementing the same in Sindh !
Answer these questions first and than ask for seats in KU.
Unfortunately only those ppl from Sindh complain about quotas who don't want to work hard. Otherwise there are many native sindhis who live in Karachi and they get admission based on merit just like anyone else from karachi. I many Sindhis, it is unfortunate that most of the rural Sindhis who want to maintain wadera like life style or mentality complaion about all these issue, otherwise Sindhis who have grown up in the cities face same issues like any other person. None of these Sindhi speaking student complain about the fact that no new public university were created in Sindh in last 10-20 years. Karachi earns and Sindh eats, there own land lords have no direct contribution since they don't pay tax but still they want to complain. I wish people open their eyes and see who is actually helping who. More non-speaking sindhi help their Sindhi speaking brethern without discrimination, than there own masters.
Opening up KU Campasus in interior Sindh... Already there are Sindh Univ Jamshoro, Quaid e Awam Univ Nawabshah, Shah Latif Univ Khairpur and Tando Adam and Mehran Univ... Why not open there campases???
The idea is simple, award KU digrees like the way these other universities are famous for. For all my kind hearted Nationalist, I would humbly request that they can best serve their Nationalism by promoting merit and hard work in their nations and not by seeking ways to bypass merit. We all know what happens in these Universities
Beisdes, kindly come and calculate the mix of ethnicities in KU and then castigate such comments for KU... Any idea why there are student federations like PSA, PSF etc. in KU... Are they there without any representation?
@aziz: i love ur comments,
sindh is for sindhis only,not for uttar pardeshis,bengalis and burmese and biharis.
We should give up quota and give a chance to merit not only in education, jobs but also in all walk of life.
Why do Sindhis always want "quota" and do not compete on merit? These so called "son of soil" aren't able to establish a single credible institute in interior Sindh. There should be no quota for anyone.
Who will cultivate lands if people in interior Sindh start studying. Well done KU. Good Job. Remove the 60 seats already reserved.
Say no to quota system. Why even 60 seats for rural Sindhis ..too many total waste since most of them are incompetent against a merit student. Many deserving students are denied to get admission in Govt funded universities just because of this racist quota system and if some Sindhi racist here thinks that they should be awarded extra seats without any competency then they better opt for Mehran or Sindh Jomoshoru University. KU should not degrade itself.
Why dont the Sindhi Waderas in the assembly establish Versities in interior Sindh ? The Sindhis must ask them where do all the fund and grants go ? They need to dare once ?
Loads of Karachi residing students fail to get admission in KU ,where should they go for higher education ,TImbaktoo .
Karachi University is for Karachi residing students first and if there is any surplus , may be allocated purely based on merit .
Sindh University, Jamshoro is there for rural Sindh and that University does not have Karachi quota similarly KU is for Karachi student. Similary, NED University is for Karachi and Mehran Eng fro Rural Sindh. DOW Medical for Karachi and Liaquat , Fatima Jinnah and Chandka Medical for rural SIndh.
So why students from Rural SIndh want admission in KU?
I am against the discrimination of urban/rural sindh but I am just mentioning the facts because some people trying to play politics on this.
@mehran- well i believe that KU has been made for the students of Pakistan and everyone should get an open chance of getting the admission, based on their competency. Syed is right that 60 seats are reserved for the INTERIOR I.E NO ONE FRM URBAN AREA CAN GET ADMISSION ON THOSE SEATS!! While the rest are open for everyone, i.e. EVERYONE can get admission on them, including the people from interior. This is actually a discrimination on the urban students. Thus there shouldn't be any quota system, and everone including urban and interior students should have an equal opportunity on every seat, based upon MERIT! Thats fair for all Pakistanis i believe!
what a shame that sindhi students are denied admissions in karachi university by racist people sitting there and their policies supported by ethnocentric political party,shame on ppp for doing nothing for pooe sindhis.sindhis should take this case of discrimination to the highest court of land or launch mass movement of awareness.
Well before scrutinizing KU please also advise the number of seats for students from Karachi in Sindh Uni, Chandka medical college or LUMHS for that matter.
No more quotas + One syllabus for all of Pakistan + No more domicile restrictions = Problem solved
@ Mehran, 60 are reserved specially for Interior students, rest are open for merit. Open for merit means its open for every student, regardless of background, If a student cant comply with university standards, then you cant blame university for giving them admissions . There are thousands of Karachi based students that dont get admission either does that imply KU is blocking Karachi students also ??
wow impressive..60 seats from rural sindh out of 4,500 seats. They are too much. Bravo KU and you are NOT ignoring Sindhi students.!!Your doors are open to them. What a shameful state of affair.
The giving education is greatest service to society but people of land are kept away of getting admission in their capital.