FAPUASA to protest against govt after Eid

Teachers, Sindh govt fight over authority to appoint

HYDERABAD: The controversy over who has the authority to make appointments in important administrative positions in Sindh’s public sector universities is setting off a tug of war between the varsity teachers and the provincial government.

A day after the Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) threatened a protest movement, the Sindh government advertised 16 university registrar vacancies and 18 examinations controller vacancies on Friday.

“We will begin our protests after Eid holidays,” Dr Ayaz Keerio, Fapuasa’s Sindh chapter president, told The Express Tribune. “For the autonomy of the universities, we can go to any length.” Responding to a question, he did not rule out the boycott of classes in all of Sindh’s government universities as part of the movement.

A Fapuasa meeting, chaired by central president Dr Naimatullah Laghari, was convened in Jamshoro on Thursday after reports that the provincial chief minister had approved these vacancies.

Lamenting that the government did not honour its promises, Dr Laghari said that they had been assured in May 2014 that the law giving the provincial government the authority to appoint registrars and controllers would be amended.

Through the Sindh Universities Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, the Sindh government had taken this authority from the varsity syndicates and the Sindh Universities and Institutes Laws (Amendment) Act, notified in January 2015, did not change the status.

According to Mehran University of Engineering and Technology’s Dr Arshad Ali Memon, a meeting of Fapuasa’s central and Sindh chapters as well as the teachers’ associations of various universities will be held after Eid.

Meanwhile, Dr Laghari told The Express Tribune that the teachers will boycott classes across Sindh’s government universities after the Eid holidays. “The protest will be expanded to all of Pakistan if the Sindh government does not withdraw.”

Sindh Universities’ Officers Federation also issued a statement, after a meeting in Jamshoro on Friday, and said  that officers will protest regularly after Eid. They felt the decision will create an administrative crisis.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2015.