KARACHI, Oct 1: City Nazim Naimatullah Khan on Tuesday urged teachers and students of the University of Karachi to refrain from indulging in confrontation and acrimony with each other and instead work jointly and with better understanding for promotion of education, cultural and moral values as stressed by Islam.

Speaking at a ceremony on the campus to hand over a point bus to the University by the city district government, Naimatullah Khan said both teachers and students of the varsity should act like a family, keeping in view the Islamic tradition and eastern values.

“Students should regard the teachers as their parents while it is incumbent upon the teachers to consider their students similar to their offsprings,” he said and deplored the ugly incidents of last month, during which the University remained closed for over a week.

The City Nazim promised that he would donate one more point bus to the University within the next few months and added that if financial resources allowed the city government would do its best to solve the transport problems being faced by the KU students.

Naimatullah Khan criticized the past municipal corporation heads and mayors, saying that despite making tall claims they left the city in rubles and destroyed the whole infrastructure.

“Why these people, who ruled the city for the last 15 years, did not work to improve condition of roads, sewerage, water distribution systems, health and education facilities,” he asked.

Reiterating his pledge to transform Karachi into a model Islamic city, he maintained that despite meagre resources his government presented a Rs20-billion tax-free budget with 31 and 19 per cent allocations for education and health sectors.

Apart from improving civic conditions and issues, provision of ideological and moral training to the masses is also one of the responsibilities of the rulers, he said and informed that the city government had recently organized a ten-day fehmul-Quran programme, disbanded self-finance scheme in intermediate colleges, besides initiating work on construction of a model mosque.

The City Nazim said he was making efforts to eliminate corruption in civic organizations at the grassroots level, adding that people should cooperate with the city government in itsvarious campaigns for their own good.

Vice-chancellor Dr Zafar Saied Saify said although the whole city was facing acute shortage of better transportation facilities, students of the University had become the worst affectees after closing of the KTC buses.

“The (defunct) Karachi Municipal Corporation was bound through a pact to provide two point buses to the varsity every year, but it miserably failed in doing so,” he said.

He praised the services of the City Nazim for Karachi and urged him to arrange a fleet of Chinese buses to resolve transport problems of the students.

Osama Shafique of the Islami Jamiat Talaba lauded the city government for donating point bus after a lapse of ten years and demanded provision of more buses as promised by the municipal corporations.

Later, the City Nazim handed over the key of the point bus to the vice-chancellor.

Deans of all the faculties, registrar, KU students adviser Mohammad Shahid, representative of Hino Pak Motors and a large number of students and teachers were also present.—PPI