| March 12, 2007 | Monday | Safar 22, 1428 |
Behind the veil
The Punjab University faculty members are gearing up for elections for their representation on the varsity’s three statutory bodies — the Senate, the Syndicate and the Academic Council.
In December last year, the annual elections of the Punjab University Academic Staff Association were held.
The forthcoming elections are being contested by all three groups operating in the university, that is, the Academic Group, the Academic Forum and the Teachers’ Front. Interestingly, in the last PUASA elections the latter two had joined hands and formed a Teachers’ Alliance, but still faced a landslide defeat in the presence of the all-powerful Academic Group.
Now as the Academic Forum and Teachers Front this time had failed to form an alliance owing to differences on joint candidates for respective seats, the situation will surely help the Academic Group a great deal.
All faculty members, especially the contestants, have started door-to-door campaigns to woo their voters. Most of the faculty members are perturbed for, they say, it is for the first time that the varsity administration is holding elections to 26 seats simultaneously for all the three statutory bodies on a single day i.e., on March 22. In all, as many as 44 candidates are trying their luck for various slots.
The university faculty will use their right to franchise for 15 seats of Senate, four of Syndicate and seven of the Academic Council. The tenure of each elected member on all three bodies will be of three years.
As all professors are members of the Senate and the Academic Council, the associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers will be in the run for the elections to the two statutory bodies. For Senate elections, any permanent faculty member can contest and seek votes from the electorate, including professors.
For the Academic Council, two seats each are reserved for associate and assistant professors and three seats for lecturers. The contestants will be required to seek votes from their colleagues serving in the same cadres.
As for the Syndicate elections, all three groups have fielded their candidates for seats reserved for a professor, an associate professor, an assistant professor and a lecturer. The electorate will poll for the candidates serving in respective cadres.
As the PU faculty members believe that these elections will reflect the course of policy decisions in future, respective groups are canvassing with different issues like plagiarism, research activities and the PU housing scheme land on their mind.
The university administration, on the other hand, is sitting back and seeing that the faculty is contesting elections on the basis of academic issues and not doing typical politics. It believes that it is an encouraging sign that the teachers are more concerned about academic issues.
THE COMSATS Institute of Information Technology last week organised a “National Job Fair” to provide opportunities to young students to meet representatives of national and multinational organisations and learn about their requirements for recruitment.
The fair, inaugurated by Naveena Group of Companies’ chairman Masood Riaz Tata, had stalls set up by some 65 leading national and multinational organisations.
Virtual University rector Dr Naveed Malik and Sweetwater International country consultant Rick Thomson were the guests of honour.
According to an estimate, over 2,000 job seekers, including students, visited the fair and met the leading employers in the country and sought information with regard to their career job opportunities.
On the other hand, the companies also tapped the nascent talent by conducting tests and interviews on the spot.
IN order to promote interest in mathematics among girl students, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore, offers scholarships to five students on the basis of the marks obtained in the subject.
The board gives the scholarship for two years that offers Rs500 as monthly allowance for hostel residents and Rs300 for day scholars. It also offers Rs1,000 allowance for the purchase of books each year.
This year again, the board management has sought applications from the girl students who have passed the intermediate annual examinations for 2006 with mathematics and opted it as an elective subject in BA/BSc and studying in a government or affiliated college.
The interested students can submit their applications to the Lahore board secretary through their principals till March 29. The applications should carry candidates’ particulars like name, father’s name, (intermediate examination) roll number and marks obtained in mathematics. The applications should also have an attested photocopy of intermediate result card.
THE Government College University Debating Society has lifted the “All Pakistan St Patrick’s English Declamation Trophy”.
Debating Society’s secretary-general Ummar Ziauddin had represented the GCU at the declamation contest hosted by the St Patrick’s School, Karachi. Ziauddin was declared the best speaker of the tournament.
(mansoor.malik@dawn.com)
Last week, International Women’s Day was observed by almost all segments of society. Interestingly, both government and non-governmental organisations organised seminars, workshops, walks and rallies, demanding equal rights for women in a society where even educated people of this modern city are unaware of the rights of citizens.
Key speakers at a majority of such programmes were women who heaped eulogies on the women’s protection bill and seemed inspired by western concepts of freedom. The women eying the fruits of the so-called freedom were least bothered about the repercussions of such campaigns.
No doubt, working women (generally accepted as having equal rights) are the product of industrialisation while post-modern era and globalisation will exploit the cause to the strength of capitalism. Yes, you will often hear from the supporters of such campaigns that women have to play their optimum role in the country's socio-economic progress. Now, exhibitions with stalls set up by women entrepreneurs are being organised. All this ends up in the best interest of the business community and economic growth of a country at the cost of social values.
A young woman rights activist was recently flying to Karachi from Lahore. She was seated next to a veiled woman, who looked her up and down, and then asked her if she was literate. She nodded in the affirmative. “Then, can you read this?” said the veiled woman, giving our friend a pamphlet. When she read it, she realized it was a booklet highlighting the importance of hijab. She read the first sentence, returned the pamphlet and buried herself in her book for the rest of the flight.
This made me think about the conservative elements in our society who would like to see men and women completely apart.
Confining women to their homes and making them victims of domestic violence would be probably another extreme. Iranian women wear hijab whether they are housewives, students, or working women and the hijab does not restrict/limit their rights nor their progress. It is interesting to note that the first Muslim woman in space was of Iranian origin.
In the line of programmes chalked out to mark the International Women's Day was the one organised at the Karachi Press Club honouring Mukhtaran Mai and the two other gang-rape victims —Naseema Lubano and Kainat Soomro.
While the programme was in progress at the club and slogans for equal rights were being raised, a demonstration was staged outside the club by Jamaat-i-Islami women against, what they said, the women propagating western agendas.
This reminds me of the fact that our country is going through a tension of opposites, where forces on all ends of the spectrum keep the country in a state of constant flux.
On the one hand, women are exploited in the name of glamour, rights and freedom while, on the other, they are the victims of honour killing, forced marriages and domestic violence.
Getting rights is a noble cause, but even nobler is to have an understanding of the issue. Abdicating all her responsibilities, if a woman only stresses her rights, it will be nothing but her misplaced ambition, which may land her into trouble.
Road lost
KARACHITES seem to have permanently lost the stretch called Fatima Jinnah Road, housing, among other buildings, the American consul-general’s residence and the closed consulate of India.
First, passenger coaches, including the Muslim coach, were banned from running on this road.
Then rickshaws and taxis followed by hi-roofs were stopped, before the road was closed to all vehicles trying to use this short-cut to Sharea Faisal.
The means of restricting vehicle movement have also seen a gradual change.
First there were rolls of barbed-wires which shrunk and spread as the situation demanded. Then the police hijacked goods containers and placed them across the road, dragging them back and forth to suit their needs.
The containers have changed colour and now bear the police colours and name. But recently the law-enforcement agencies have fortified their hold on the FJR by erecting iron gates on either end. They only draw open the gates when some particular vehicles have to pass through.
The Sindh home adviser, Waseem Akhtar, tells people that the law and order situation in Karachi is under control as there has been no major incident here in the past three months.
With this improvement in law and ord er if the movement of vehicles on the road had been relaxed, the congestion on the connecting roads would have also eased.
Due respect
Acolleague whose son was in a private hospital for five days for a fractured leg has this to share.
People in high professions not only enjoy big perks but also demand respect. They insists their names be prefaced with ‘Mr’, ‘Dr’, ‘Engineer’, ‘Architect’, ‘Journalist’.
If you happen to stay in a hospital as an attendant, you are likely to be overwhelmed by the service of those who are the traditionally, and inconsiderately, ranked the lowest in our social milieu. People often refer them as: sweepers, sanitary workers, jumaidar, etc.
Look at the services they offer the ailing and suppose the same had to be done for yourself you will have nothing but gratitude and admiration for them.
It is our selfishness that we refuse to treat them as equal human beings, and pay them the lowest wages.
The hospitals, they work for, pay them such miserly sums that they are compelled to depend on the generosity of others to survive. — Karachian