KARACHI: Petroman employees deplore IT ministry's 'injustices'
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 16: The agitating Petroman employees want retention of students at their educational institutions and have vowed to oppose any "plan to abolish" government extended academic facilities from the city.
A group of employees, who are on strike for the last over 36 days, expressed the view that the University of Karachi should not take measures in haste regarding the transfer of BCS and BBA students from Petroman institutions to private ones.
The announcements made so far by the university had led to, en masse, transfer of confused students, mostly belonging to the lower or middle income groups, the employees remarked, adding that no one knew what would happen to them once they were admitted to other institutions.
It was further said that instead of having meetings of principals of affiliated colleges, the university should have sought comments, if any, from the top hierarchy and should have acquired a formal notice from the ministry concerned regarding "closing down" of Petroman's North Nazimabad and Gulshan campuses.
When contacted, secretary of the KU affiliation committee, Prof Sohail Barkati, said that what the varsity had done so far in the case of Petroman students was based on ground realities and in the interest of students. "We want to save the students from further suffering and enable them to take their respective examinations without wasting their semester," he added.
The Petroman staff said that they ran the affairs of the institutions befittingly, despite unfavourable working conditions, but when things neared an acute financial crisis, they adopted means of protests.
"Our local bosses, who are believed to have returned from Islamabad with a conducive action plan, are avoiding to meet us," said a senior employee, pointing out that without taking employees into confidence, high-ups would not be able to run the affairs on their own.
The employee said that the ministry of IT did not appear to be sincere to students and employees, otherwise it would have overcome so-called bureaucratic approaches and complexities. "We are ready to resume teaching affairs, but the Petroman management and the ministry concerned will have to ensure justice in our case," he added.
When contacted, the principal of the Petroman branch at Hyderi, North Nazimabad, Zia ur Rahman, said that almost 90 per cent of the students had obtained NOCs for transfer from his institute. "We did so on the instructions from our general manager in Karachi, while on the other hand students had also been demanding for it," he replied to a question.
He added that there was no official announcement with regard to winding up the institute, and teachers too were interested in resuming teaching despite uncertainties.
He said that students were in a position to rejoin the institute till the time any change in their enrolment was made by the university. He hoped the management would take up the matter in order to provide relieve to students, their parents, and the staff.
An administrative official at the Hyderi branch, Muhammad Nadeem, claimed that he had been associated with the team working for improvement and upgrading of Petroman. "It is the failure of the hierarchy in the management, otherwise things would have changed significantly during the last one year," he added.
He informed that a decision had been taken lately by the IT ministry, following which the Higher Education Commission would take over Petroman institutions.
A meeting with the chairman of the HEC and other government officials was also held at Karachi the other day to evolve a future line of action, he added, but regretted that the Petro man hierarchy was not ready to share the development, and was keeping employees and students in the dark.
The GM concerned, Tayyab Shakil, was not available for comment, who could not come to office due to domestic exigency, said a staffer.
