Affecting the students: Public sector universities closed in Karachi and the rest of Sindh

Varsities boycott over provincial government’s failure to amend the universities’ act.

SUKKUR/ KARACHI:

The indefinite universities' strike, on the call of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (Fapuasa), left students perplexed as semester exams being conducted in several institutions were cancelled.

A majority of the students, however, blamed the Sindh government for their academic loss. "The postponement of the exams for an indefinite period will ultimately affect our summer vacations schedule as well," said a student at Karachi University's (KU) Islamic Learning department, Okasha Mustafa. "But we should support the teachers in their demand for protecting the universities' autonomy from external influence."

For Tayyaba Nasir, a student of political science at KU, the laws that grant full authority to a single entity to decide on all the matters, from admissions to appointments, is a form of dictatorship.

Khairpur

A meeting of the Shah Abdul Latif University Teachers Association's (Saluta) executive council was held at Shah Abdul Latif University(Salu), Khairpur.

The meeting was presided over by Saluta vice-president Prof Dr Ahmed Din Rajpar. The executive council expressed their dismay over the Sindh government's advertisement in leading newspapers on the appointment of a registrar, an examinations controller and a finance director. The office bearers said that it is a blatant violation of the universities' autonomy and will damage the hierarchy of institutions.

On Fapuasa's call, Saluta announced the boycott of examination activities from May 26 for an indefinite period. Examinations activities hence remained suspended in all Salu faculties and departments.

Fapuasa condemns govt action

Fapuasa provincial secretary-general Moiz Khan said that the Sindh Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill not only gives full authority to the chief minister to appoint vice-chancellors, registrars, examination controllers and other administrative staff but also empowers the provincial government to determine and shape admission policy. "Except for the appointment of vice-chancellor, all these powers were earlier held by the statutory bodies of the universities, including the selection board, senate, syndicate, and the academic council," Khan told The Express Tribune.

Following the approval of the bill in August last year, Fapuasa's executive committee had claimed that a number of provisions in the bill were a measure to usurp the autonomy of provincial universities.

Teachers at universities across the province have since been protesting the provisions that limit the powers of the statutory bodies. "All such provisions betray the fundamental concept of a university that allows them to exercise a great deal of autonomy in their academic and administrative affairs with help of democratically elected statuary bodies," said Fapuasa's Sindh president Dr Usman Ali Shah.

He said that their protests had made the government verbally relent into amending the law as per the teachers' unanimous recommendations for the removal of the clauses that may undermine the academic and administrative autonomy of the universities. "This new development of advertising the posts is a serious breach of trust and a proof that the government wishes to merely play politics on this matter."

Official record

However, the chief minister's secretary for universities and education boards Mumtaz Ali Shah, when approached by The Express Tribune, asserted that the teachers' grievances were completely unwarranted. "The Sindh government has advertised the posts in accordance with the law and all the appointments will be based on merit," he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2014.