October 10, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 10, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 9: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) on Thursday bitterly criticised the provincial education department for not lodging an appeal against the order of the rent Controller-III (Karachi East) on vacation of Government Islamia College Building Complex premises and handover of its possession to the official assignee of a court. The six-month period allowed for making such an appeal was about to lapse, it noted with concern.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the DJ Govt Science College on Thursday, SPLA leaders Prof Liaquat Aziz, Prof Ather Hussain Mirza, Prof Mohsin Raza Bhatti, Prof Shafqat Jokhio, Prof Ghazanfar Shah, Prof Iftikhar Azmi and others pointed out that the order was passed by the rent controller on April 26, 2008 but the education department officials concerned did not take any measures to save the college complex that housed eight government educational institutions — four colleges and four schools — with around 20,000 students enrolled in them.

The colleges and schools being run under the roof of the Islamia College Building Complex are the Islamia Arts and Commerce College (Morning), Islamia Arts and Commerce College (Evening), Islamia Science College, Islamia Law College, Qureshi High Secondary School, Qureshi Primary Boys School, German Model Secondary School and D.B. Advani Sindhi Primary School.

Lashing out at the officials for keeping a discreet silence over the issue, the SPLA Sindh chapter’s vice-president, Prof Manzoor Hussain Chishti, said that it was astonishing to note that the department appeared smart enough to get a ban imposed on the legal activities of the SPLA and arrange for a huge amount of Rs400,000 to hire a lawyer for the purpose but it they could neither spare time nor had the funds to save the government educational institutions.

They said that SPLA would announce its line of action in this regard on Oct 15, after seeking legal opinion on the issue.

Classes on road

The SPLA’s Islamia College unit has announced that if the Islamia College Complex was handed over to the court’s official assignee on Oct 25, the classes of all the four affected colleges would be held on the road running in front of the college building from Oct 27.

The SPLA leaders also made an impassioned appeal to the Sindh government and the relevant authorities to help resolve the lingering issues of college teachers.

If the government continued to turn a blind eye towards these pressing issues, the SPLA would launch a protest movement across the province, they said, adding that the responsibility of disturbance in the academic process would rest with the Sindh government.

They urged the government to immediately lift the ban on teachers’ associations and activities, and demanded removal of the provincial education secretary and director-general (colleges).

The SPLA’s other demands included immediate issuance of a notification pertaining to the college teachers’ promotions and move-over, regularisation of all ad-hoc lecturers, posting of all 650 SPSC-qualified teachers and immediate commencement of recruitment to overcome a shortage of over 2,000 college teachers in the province’s educational institutions.