KARACHI: Teachers at Karachi University (KU) condemned on Thursday what the university administration has described as ‘conditional appointments’ and termed it an attempt to rig the Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS) elections scheduled for Nov 19.

Most of the appointments relate to the applicants already teaching on the campus.

Speaking to Dawn, they said there was no precedent of ‘conditional appointments’ in KU history and that the administration should have taken permission from the government before making the appointments.

“Not only the appointments are violating a government order, the timings of their approval has given credence to the widely held perception that it’s a pre-poll election rigging,” said syndicate member and former head of the political science department Dr Mohammad Qadri.

The KU administration that had taken a political decision seemed to have a ‘complete understanding’ with KUTS as both were protecting each other’s interests, the syndicate member believed.

In his opinion, the university administration decision had troubled appointees as their future hung in the balance. “The administration should immediately contact the government on this issue and must not delay their case,” he added.

In a recent meeting, the syndicate approved 38 appointments (out of 42) recommended by the selection board despite an official ban on recruitment.

The appointments on the positions of lecturer to professor have been made at the departments of geography, applied chemistry, genetics, marine science, Quran and Sunnah, mathematics and pharmaceutics.

The decision to withhold some appointments seemed to have been made on the pressure of a teachers’ group that a day before the syndicate’s approval alleged serious irregularities in the selection of some candidates at a press conference on the campus.

They also had doubt over the haste shown by the selection board that chose 25 candidates within two days, besides criticizing award of honourary PhD degrees and the title of Prof Emeritus to some individuals. Some candidates called for interviews also complained that no question pertaining to their subject was asked from them and they were told to leave after their introduction at the selection board.

When the issue of making appointments against government ban (imposed this year in August) was highlighted in the media, the university administration issued a clarification that declared the appointments ‘conditional.’

“The syndicate has given a conditional approval. Appointment letters will not be issued to appointees till the government lifts the ban. (Syndicate member) Sardar Yasin Malik himself withdrew the agenda item for grant of honorary degree to him. The issue of Professor Emeritus was not discussed in the meeting,” says a university statement.

Dr Riaz Ahmed, a senior teacher at KU’s applied chemistry department, said the practice of making appointments and holding long-pending statutory bodies’ meetings close to the election season had become a routine affair over the past few years. “The university administration and teachers’ society are protecting each other’s vested interests and the vice chancellor is directly involved in campus politics and supporting a group. It’s not surprising then why the meetings of statutory bodies that were long overdue were held within a short period of time,” he said.

He also questioned why the administration chose this particular time to seek forms for hardship cases pertaining to teachers’ promotion.

Dr Shakeel Farooqi representing the Alliance for Good Governance that held the recent press conference said that appointments should have been made in a timely manner rather than near the elections. “The university’s justification of ‘conditional appointments’ is simply an after-thought and a futile face-saving attempt following the teachers’ criticism,” he said.

When contacted, KU registrar Moazzam Ali Khan rejected allegations of pre-poll rigging and said appointments were purely an ‘administrative issue’.

“We have written a letter to the government to exempt the university from this ban as appointments were needed at departments. Some other universities have also done that,” he argued, adding that the appointments had been done in response to advertisements published in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

According to him, all appointments have been made on budgeted posts, otherwise they would have been challenged in the syndicate.

About the absence of the vice chancellor in a selection board meeting, he said: “He had to leave a few times but then he returned to the meeting. If someone has some physiological reason to leave a meeting, what one can do? These days every second person is going to the court so if someone have reservations over the selection board, he can consult the court.”

Prof Jamil Kazmi, who heads the KUTS, said they supported ‘conditional appointments’ which were very much needed. “The teachers won’t get a single penny more at their new posts, besides the appointments officially starts from mid January. Up to 80 per cent are internal appointments [as teachers are already working on the campus in different capacities],” he said.“It’s not just us, the NED University of Engineering and Technology has also made appointments and there are precedents of such appointments on the campus,” he said while admitting a long delay in holding meetings of the statutory bodies by the administration.

Referring to the meeting of the syndicate in which the appointments were approved, he said that the syndicate members strongly condemned the press conference held by their colleagues that in his opinion brought a bad name to the university.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2015

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