KARACHI: Teachers of the NED University of Engineering and Technology and Karachi University (KU) on Saturday demanded that the government immediately release funds to their institutions, which they said are facing serious financial trouble.

They criticised the government action of releasing grants to other public sector universities and termed it discrimination.

“The situation at NED University is critical as the university has to pay Rs100 million in interest to banks on a yearly basis from which it had borrowed heavily against employees’ general provident and pension funds during the previous administration,” said Dr Usman Ali Shah of the NED University Teachers Association (Neta).

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The illegal move of the past university administration, he said, had caused an immense loss to the university, which was facing a deficit of Rs1.8 billion two years ago. “The deficit has been reduced with the help of administrative measures but still Rs800m is needed to come out of the crisis, which is badly affecting research and academic activities on the campus.”

The administration, he said, was unable to hold selection boards, promotions were being delayed while there were no funds to pay house sealing rent to employees. Consequently, a number of teachers had left.

The previous university administration, he said, was authoritative and if any teacher ever dared to speak against it, he or she was forced to leave the university.

The university administration, he said, had been demanding that the government give a one-time Rs800m bailout package to the university but so far there was no progress on the case.

“The NED University is the country’s leading institution. It has produced many talented graduates now serving within the country and abroad. It rightly deserves this bailout package,” he argued, adding that if the government could give Rs80bn bailout package to the Pakistan Steel Mills, there should not be any problem in giving a much smaller amount to a university.

The provincial government, he said, had not paid a single penny from the Rs500m the university had asked for last year. Funds had been released for some other public sector universities, he said.

He described the government grant of Rs250m released earlier as mere peanuts.

Prof Jamil Kazmi, who heads the Karachi University Teachers Society (Kuts), also criticised the government action of releasing grant to other universities but depriving KU and the NED universities of funds.

“We strongly condemn this discrimination. Being one of the biggest universities of the country, KU deserves better financial support from the government,” he said.

The government, he said, must sanction the outstanding grant of Rs1.5bn. “Otherwise, Kuts would be compelled to take any bold step. Teachers reserve the right to protest and initiate legal proceedings,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

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