THIS is with reference to your report ‘Protesting Urdu varsity teacher warned by VC’ in Metropolitan South (Jan 20). The story did not include a comment from the protesting teachers.

A few days ago, when the police authorities brokered an agreement between the protesting teachers and the interim VC, Dawn shockingly decided to remain silent.

When the agreement was violated by the interim administration and the controversial matter was brought under discussion in the university senate, the teachers started protesting again.

On the very day, the teachers were taken on police vans to the DC (East) offices where late-night negotiations over held on the breach of the agreement by the interim administration. The teachers were ensured that the matter would be communicated to the authorities concerned. Teachers missed this news in Dawn’s pages again.

Amazingly when the VC called a press conference, Dawn gave him full coverage.

Dawn’s readers should know what the protesting teachers are demanding. They want a convocation to be held. A convocation has not been organised since 2011 on the university campus; a selection board for teachers has not been organised since 2010; healthcare was stopped by the university a year ago; they want a probe into the unauthorised use of the 100 million rupees of the need-based scholarship on ‘other’ expenses, reported by the Auditor-General of Pakistan. They also want a probe into the hefty amounts paid to lawyers by the former interim VC for defending his plagiarism. They also want a re-posting of Suleman D. Muhammad on the post of a professor in the university. (His PhD degree has been cancelled by the Karachi University and he is relying on a stay order granted by the Sindh High Court, and all of his research papers have been cancelled by the Higher Education Commission.)

Dr Irfan Aziz

Assistant Professor, Dept of Mass Communication,

Member Nominating Committe, Federal Urdu University

Of Arts, Science and Technology,

Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018