AIOU-staffers row: Open varsity students continue to suffer

Fake degree allegations, protest over regularisation create headaches galore.

ISLAMABAD:

Marred by various controversies, the capital’s Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has begun to resemble a political hub instead of a degree-awarding institution. With incessant protests, political wrangling, and fiery speeches by aspiring members of parliament, it is the varsity’s students who are bearing the brunt as their problems and needs are being overshadowed. 

Before losing the capital’s by-election on August 22, PML-N candidate Ashraf Gujjar visited the campus to address a rally of the university’s employees who have been protesting for almost a month with various demands including the ouster of AIOU Vice Chancellor (VC) Nazir Ahmad Sangi.



In a fiery speech to over 200 protesters, Gujjar said “We will address all your problems and turn this institution into an exemplary university”.  Despite his tall claims, Gujjar failed to win the capital’s NA-48 seat in the by-elections.

The Employees Staff Association (EWA) has locked horns with the VC, demanding the latter’s removal for several months now.

Earlier this year, a controversy regarding the VC’s ‘fake’ degree sprang up, but was later settled, or hushed up according to the EWA, which alleges that many senior officials are delaying results of a recent degree verification drive of several senior officials.

Moreover, during the last days of the previous government, many contractual and daily wage employees began protesting for regularization, while others demanded increases in their salaries.



There are over 800 employees who have been waiting to be regularised for years. The protests have continued since then as the management seems uninterested in settling the matter, calling the employees a “bunch of miscreants”.

Due to these reasons, the university’s staff is also divided into pro and anti administration groups.

The Academic Staff Association (ASA) is a recently elected body, headed by Prof Zafar Ilyas, a close aide of the VC. Many teachers of associate professors-level also allege that their selection board meeting has not taken place as they are not ‘dear’ to the administration.

Amid all this politicised turmoil, students are forced to suffer as their teachers and directors are busy elsewhere and do not have time for the classrooms. “I wasted more than three hours to obtain my bachelors degree in computer science as there is no one to help me. There is no one at the concerned department and even the receptionist’s chair is empty,” said a female student.

Many other students complained that there was no one to solve their issues as most teachers were either outside protesting or in a committee meetings chalking out their future course of action.

“My thesis is pending for the last six months as the professor is either away from the department or busy in day-long meetings is,” said Shumaila, an MSc Special Education graduate-in-waiting.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.