KARACHI: The Pakistani high commissions in the UK, Canada and Sweden have refused counsellor service to four teachers ‘studying’ in these countries after receiving a complaint against them from Karachi University (KU), it emerged on Monday.

Sources said 13 KU teachers had gone to the countries on a six-year study leave or on a Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholarship under its faculty development programme. But after completion of their study/scholarship period, they failed to rejoin their university.

The teachers, the sources said, received their monthly salaries during their absence while a single HEC scholarship cost around Rs10 million. The counsellor service was refused to the four teachers who had received HEC scholarship, as the rest were on study leave.

Taking notice of their prolonged absence, the university administration some months back had initiated inquires against the teachers and issued show-cause notices to them.

The KU then approached the relevant Pakistani high commissions seeking action against them. The sources said the university recovered ‘the spent money’ from at least two of the teachers, while another teacher sought early retirement after receiving the show-causes notice.

The sources said that the action against the teachers was the first of its kind in KU’s history and the administration had to bear a lot of pressure while implementing it.

According to past practice, the university used to terminate the service of such ‘absentee’ teachers but no other action had ever been taken.

“The high commissions in these three countries took notice of our complaint and have terminated counsellor service to the four teachers who had failed to return after completion of their study/scholarship period,” KU registrar Moazzam Ali Khan confirmed to Dawn.

He explained that termination of counsellor service also meant that the four teachers couldn’t get their passports and national identity cards renewed.

According to him, the university also decided to extend leave of one of the 13 teachers on a request of her research supervisor.

“The university has managed to recover Rs745,000 from a teacher, while two to three teachers have agreed to pay the money they had received during their leave. Another teacher has sent a request for early retirement,” he said.

According to the KU sources, the ‘absentee teachers’ included Naveed Anwar and Jamil Ahmed of the Computer Science department, Shumaila Rashid of the Biotechnology department, Asma Khan of the Biochemistry department, Hafiz Mohammad Sohail and Asim Aijaz of the Physics department, Azhar Siddiqui of the Chemistry department, Farah Sadiq of the Applied Chemistry department, Khurrum Kamran of the Mathematics department, Rameez Rizvi of the Agriculture department, Dr Erum Shoaib of Genetics, Kausar Qureshi of Business School.

Seven employees expelled

Besides, the university terminated the services of seven non-teaching staff and sent show-cause notices to 49 non-teaching staff members on charge of ‘inefficiency’, sources said.

“The action has been taken following the submission of complaints by their respective departments where they worked and completion of legal formalities. Eight inquiries are under way, while the salaries of 13 non-teaching staff have been withheld,” Dr Khan said.

To bring financial efficiency, the university had introduced a ‘student tracking system’ to ensure that semester fee was duly submitted in time, he said.

“Among all the public sector varsities across the country, around 160 in number, Karachi University has the lowest fee structure. But even this small amount is often not paid. Now with this computerized system in place, no student can join the next semester without submitting their past dues,” he said.

The university has also done away with cash payment as it accepts pay orders only, according to him.

Meanwhile, a five-day training programme on citizenship education and community engagement for students kicked off on the KU campus. The university is collaborating with the British Council and the HEC for the programme.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2016