LAHORE: Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) on Tuesday plunged into political crisis after one of the two panels claimed its victory without election while the other announced voting next month.

Earlier, the outgoing body of PUASA, led by Teachers Alliance, had announced conducting elections on March 13 after their tenure ended in February.

The two groups - Teacher Front Academic Alliance (TFAA) and Teachers Alliance - vowed to contest the PUASA elections and had also submitted nomination papers of their candidates.

Later, the outgoing body developed some differences with their rival group TFAA and postponed the elections scheduled for March 13.

The PUASA outgoing body had also dissolved the election committee and seven out of its eight members, including chairman, resigned.

The TFAA had rejected the cancellation of the elections by declaring that the step was taken without consulting them and vowed to hold election on March 13.

The outgoing body later held its meeting and constituted a new election panel under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nasir to hold polls on April 10.

TFAA candidate for president Prof Dr Mehboob Husain said the outgoing PUASA’s tenure ended in February and it could not hold meeting, postpone and change the date of elections under the constitution of the association.

He said as their rival group Teachers Alliance had withdrawn their nomination papers, all of their 14 members were elected ‘unopposed.’

He said they had called the PUASA general body’s meeting on March 15 to get the vote of confidence.

TFAA’s new [PUASA] body includes Dr Mahboob Husain (president), Dr Kamran Mirza (vice president-science), Shabbir Ahmad Khan (vice president-arts), Dr Azhar Naeem (secretary), Chaudhry Naeemullah Khan (joint secretary), Munawar Iqbal (treasurer) and eight others as executive members.

A press release issued by the [unopposed] PUASA body states that VC Prof Dr Zakriya Zakir held a meeting with them and congratulated them.

The ‘unopposed’ body had discussed matters of mutual interest with the VC who assured them to hold selection boards meeting to implement time scale promotion.Meanwhile, outgoing PUASA president Javed Sami told Dawn that theirs was the legitimate body and no one could reject them till next elections.

He said the election date was changed after holding meeting with their opponent group who later rejected their offer.

He said under the constitution, it was the responsibility of the outgoing body to announce and hold association’s election.

A senior PU official on condition of anonymity told this reporter that the PUASA [unopposed] body had approached the VC in his office to hold a meeting with him.

He said the VC suggested it to reconcile with their rival group, including some senior teachers, to solve the issue.

The PU spokesman said the administration had nothing to do with teachers’ politics adding that they had asked the teachers groups to resolve their problems.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2018