Condemnation: ‘Consult teachers on varsity affairs’

LAHORE:

The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) in a press statement on Friday condemned a proposal to appoint three pro-vice chancellors at public universities in order to curb powers of vice chancellors (VCs).

FAPUASA Punjab president Hassan Mobeen Alam said the proposal had created panic among teachers at public universities. He said Ahad Cheema, Umer Saif and Zafar Iqbal Qureshi were giving the chief minister advice that was harmful for academics. He said the government was not consulting university teachers on how to run the varsities’ affairs. “Instead the government is depending on the advice of bureaucrats and people from the private sector.”

He said elected representatives of public universities in the Punjab had called on the chief minister to take input from relevant stakeholders. Otherwise, he said, university teachers would not accept any drastic amendment to the Universities Act.

The statement was issued in reaction to a news item that said that the government was set to amend the Universities Act to include posts of three pro-VCs. The news item claimed that the move aimed to reduce the powers of public universities’ VCs. It said that a committee had been formed under the Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Nizanuddin, and other members included LDA director Ahad Cheema, PITB’s Umer Saif and Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2015.