Demonstration: Teachers’ body wants sacked SBBU colleagues reinstated

Protesters criticise Benazir university administration for firing lecturers.

HYDERABAD: A large number of teachers from various public sector universities staged a protest outside the press club on Monday to express solidarity with the sacked lecturers of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU).

At the demonstration held by the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA), the protesters criticised the Benazir university administration for terminating the lecturers and called for the immediate restoration of their services.

On June 19, the university in the Shaheed Benazirabad district had sacked ten Grade-18 lecturers. The nascent higher education institution had hired only 12 regular lecturers in January, of whom one left on a foreign scholarship while another was sacked in March. The university is currently working with only four contractual teachers. “We demand immediate and unconditional reinstatement of the lecturers,” said FAPUASA Sindh President Dr Usman Keerio. He criticised the appointment of SBBU vice chancellor Arshad Saleem Arain, saying that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) rules for involvement of Sindh governor’s Vice Chancellor Search Committee were violated. Representatives of the dismissed teachers said they will challenge the termination in the court. “The removal of ten teachers in one blow without even specifying their fault testifies to the vice chancellor’s mala fide intent,” said Anwar Mangrio, one of the fired lecturers. He also accused MNA Azra Afzal Pechuho for influencing the varsity affairs and dominating its syndicate.

Pechuho is one of the five elected representatives who sit in the 20-member SBBU syndicate, which at present is functioning with only 12 members.

The teachers’ backlash at the campus had begun when the current vice chancellor took charge in February. They termed his appointment illegal and one of them even filed a petition in the Sindh High Court as well.

“The autocratic administration style at the public sector universities of Sindh is the main reason behind the continuous decline of educational standards and institutional failure,” alleged Azhar Ali Shah, the FAPUASA general secretary. He demanded fundamental reforms in the universities’ laws in order to end the influence of, what he described, as “irrelevant authorities”. At the demonstration, the protesters also called for the removal of University of Sindh’s Vice Chancellor Dr Nazir A Mughal, who was sent on forced leave as a result of a two-month long teaching boycott at the campus. They also demanded allotment of unused university lands to the teachers; removal of retired personnel from administrative posts; and increase in HEC grants for government universities.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2012.