KARACHI, Jan 15: While vowing to intensify their ongoing movement against the Model University Ordinance, the representatives of university teachers from all over the country on Wednesday urged the government to restore the University Act of 1974.

Speaking at a press conference at the University of Karachi, the senior leaders of the university teachers’ body maintained that the 1974 varsity act was a comprehensive document, which was prepared after long deliberations and was democratic by nature.

The press conference was held after the general body meeting of the Federation of All Pakistan University Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA), which was attended by the representatives from at least 12 universities of the country.

The meeting adopted three major resolutions, rejecting the newly promulgated federal university ordinance and model university ordinance, and demanding for institution of a new commission on university rules.

Informing the newsmen about the proceedings of the meeting and reaction of university teachers on issues related to them, the president and vice president of the FAPUASA, Sarwar Nasim, and Dr Iftikhar H Bhatti, said that they wanted formation of a new commission for review of the 1974 act and to incorporate changes in it, if needed, so that it could be used as the main statutory tool to deal with the universities, majority of which are governed by the provincial governments.

They said that commission should comprise mainly of academic personalities and representatives of varsity teachers and it should hold open discussions on the university affairs.

It was further said that FAPUASA, in its meeting, once again reviewed the efforts of the teachers in regard to public opinion mobilization.

The teachers decided to observe a “Day of Action” on Jan 29 to register their protest over the MOU issue.

The senior office bearers of the federation said that in order to create awareness on the issue of MUO the federation would hold a seminar at the Peshawar University in the first week of February.

Representatives of the teachers maintained that the MUO was anti-education and anti-people, which had been prepared, they said, to serve the interest of private entrepreneurs.

They claimed that the government had released at least 16 drafts of the proposed ordinance, so far.

To a question the office bearers said that only two provincial governments had contacted the teachers on the issue, while Sindh and Balochistan were not paying any heed to the reservations of the teachers and students on the MUO.

They added that induction of private sector through nomination was aimed at leaving the movable and immovable government property at the mercy of private parties. It was further claimed that the revised fee structure of some engineering universities and medical colleges was anti-student.

A senior office bearer of the Peshawar University, Arbab Khan Afridi, said that implementation of any ordinance from the federation in regard to universities run by the provinces was highly inappropriate and illogical, particularly when the provincial assemblies were functional. He said government should withdraw amendments made in 1974 varsity act.

According to resolutions of FAPUASA’s general body, as read out by the General Secretary, Dr Riaz Ahmad, the body demanded of the authorities concerned to remove the vice-chancellors of the Sindh Agriculture University, University of Karachi and Peshawar University, as according to it, they were abusing their official powers and were involved in overriding the decisions of the statutory bodies of the universities, as well.

The body also demanded of the Punjab government to reinstate seven college teachers of the province, who were allegedly victimized for expressing themselves against the ordinance.