KARACHI: Encouraged by the appointment of an acting vice chancellor, senior faculty members of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) put forward their demands on Friday, urging the chancellor and the vice chancellor to bring long-term stability to the university through “merit-based decisions”.

The level of unrest among teachers, according to sources, could be gauged from the fact that the teachers continued their meetings with Vice Chancellor Dr Altaf Hussain till late evening.

“We welcome the appointment [of the vice chancellor] but, we believe that long-term academic and administrative stability [in] the university could only come if teachers’ grievances are seriously looked into,” Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Tahiri, member of the university senate and nominating committee, told Dawn.

The foremost teachers’ demand, he said, was the removal of deputy chair (university) of senate whose tenure was ending on Dec 19. “We request the chancellor to appoint an academic person of high calibre on this post, which, under the university code, has more powers than a vice chancellor,” he said, accusing the present deputy chair of senate of playing a key role in the crises that the university had been facing.

The teachers, he said, had suggested the names of Dr Atta-ur-Rahman and Dr Ishrat Hussain for this post.

On behalf of teachers, he also demanded removal of the registrar.

He also called for steps to start the process for appointment of a permanent vice chancellor.

Upon contact, Dr Altaf Hussain, former vice chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University, who would serve at Fuuast till appointment of a permanent vice chancellor at the university, said that he was aware of the issues plaguing the institution for a long time.

“My prime concern and focus would be to ensure better quality of education and everything else would follow it. This is exactly what I have told the teachers as well,” he said, adding that he would go by the book and look into allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

Such cases would be investigated by impartial committees, he said.

It is important to recall here that Dr Hussain has recently replaced Dr Zafar Iqbal, who was sacked by the president of Pakistan in his capacity as the chancellor of Fuuast.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017

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