HYDERABAD, July 17: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association has urged the Sindh government to immediately fill the posts of college lecturers that have been lying vacant for years, by promoting teachers already in service.

A meeting of the association welcomed the statement of Sindh Minister for Education Pir Mazharul Haq that the services of 863 ad hoc lecturers would be regularised through a bill in the assembly.

The meeting, however, urged the minister to release the salaries of ad hoc lecturers which have been withheld for six months.

It said that the cases of 482 teachers in grade-18 and

19 were lying ready at the secretariat since 2005, who had been waiting for the DPC meeting.

The meeting hailed the decision of the education minister to withdraw the orders of the previous government under which many college teachers had been sent on forced leave. It also demanded that SNEs (summary of new establishment) of those colleges which were functioning without it should be approved and necessary staff should be made available at these colleges.

It observed that there was an acute shortage of teachers in many girl colleges and demanded that teachers should be posted at these colleges without delay.

SPLA vice-president Prof Yaqoob Chandio presided over the meeting.

SAU: Sindh Agriculture University employees continued there protest against the vice-chancellor on Thursday and held a sit-in outside the vice-chancellor’s office.

The leaders of the employees’ union, Hussain Veesar, Karam Punhoon, Syed Abdul Majeed Shah Rashidi and others said on the occasion that the sons of the vice-chancellor and his relatives considered the university as their fiefdom and they were destroying the resources and institutions.

They called upon the Sindh governor and the provincial government to appoint someone conscientious as a new vice-chancellor of the university.

They warned that if the vice-chancellor was not removed, a strike call will be given in all universities of Sindh from the platform of All Sindh Universities Employees Federation.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the university has claimed that all the genuine problems of the employees have been resolved and there is no reason for them to continue strike.

In a statement faxed to Dawn, the spokesman said that the protest by the employees was aimed at blackmailing the university administration and to harm the reputation of the institution.