Staffers said the administration sent 400 employees files to the Karachi campus, leaving no employee records in Islamabad. PHOTO: FILE
Changes in the top management of the Federal Urdu University of Science and Technology (FUUST) Islamabad campus have proved to be a bad omen for its staffers, as the “abrupt and out of the way” change has led to a strike threat.
The Officers Welfare Association (OWA) on Tuesday requested the university vice chancellor to remove the newly-appointed Additional Registrar Dr Muhammad Naeemullah Bajwa, who, according to them, is ineligible for this post. The association has threatened a pen-down strike from May 27 if Bajwa’s appointment notification is not withdrawn and the issues in the administration are not addressed.
“There is a growing frustration with the new administration, which is issuing decisions from Karachi in connivance with their blue-eyed boys at the Islamabad campus,” said an official from administration department.
Interestingly, FUUST has three campuses — two in Karachi and one in the capital. The Islamabad campus is listed as the main campus, but for some reason, Islamabad is treated as satellite campus instead of its designated role.
These issues are taking a toll on students, administration and the faculty which, is divided on a number of issues including new projects, said an official from the university.
The OWA met on Tuesday and discussed their future strategy as they were concerned about their issues and day-to-day affairs, which are “severely affected by the administration’s behaviour”.
They blamed the administration for sending 400 staffers’ files to the Karachi campus, leaving no records of appointment letters, service records and other documents in Islamabad.
Detractors said that because of the move, , the Islamabad staff will be at the mercy of administration and unable to move elsewhere from the university.
“We are being sidelined and punished for our stand against illegal appointments and irregularities in the university following the change of management,” said another official in the administration department on the condition of anonymity.
He said their crime is that they have voiced concern over appointments without advertisements and over 50 contractual teaching and non-teaching staffers have gone unpaid for three months.
“The university is in a mess and nobody cares because those who should are part of the problem,” he remarked.
However, Additional Registrar Bajwa told The Express Tribune that there is no such issue in the university and half of those who signed the petition to strike came to him and disassociated themselves from the OWA.
Replying to a question about sending over 400 files to Karachi, Bajwa said some of the officials are involved in embezzlement and investigations are underway.
When the administration department official was asked to respond to Bajwa’s claim, he said it is a smokescreen, as the investigation could be conducted without sending the files to Karachi.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2013.
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