LAHORE: The University of Engineering and Technology Teaching Staff Association (UETTSA) on Sunday announced partial boycott of the teaching activities on all the varsity campuses over delay in promotions and appointments of as many as 300 teachers.

The association president, Dr Amanat Ali Bhatti, secretary general Muhammad Arshad, vice president Dr Muhammad Farooq and former president Dr Zaffar Noon on Sunday held a joint press conference at the varsity’s main gate.

They said the bureaucracy was challenging the autonomy of the universities and a deputy secretary of the higher education department insulted the UET authorities during a meeting of the varsity syndicate on Saturday.

They said the selection board was held on March 15 and the syndicate meeting was called to approve its recommendations, including promotions of some 150 teachers and regularisation of as many lecturers.

They said the deputy secretary had not only deferred selection board recommendations, excluding these from the agenda items with remarks that an interim vice chancellor could not do that.

They regretted that the HED secretary did not attend the syndicate meetings, but send a deputy secretary who also raised objections to the UET Act that was tantamount to challenging the varsity’s autonomy.

They said it had put the careers of 300 teachers at stake because the syndicate meeting was not held for the last five months and it was delaying decisions on various important matters of the university.

They said the accreditation of several degree programmes had also become difficult due to lack of permanent teachers and PhD faculty and it was like endangering the future of thousands of students.

They claimed that the Pakistan Engineering Council had refused to accredit some degree programmes of the varsity’s Narowal campus due to deficiency of faculty members.

They demanded HED secretary should be replaced with some other officer who should attend the syndicate meetings as per the University Act.

They also demanded approval of the selection board’s recommendations, including the regularisation of lecturers, promotion of teachers and appointment of fresh faculty with consensus of the syndicate.

They also demanded filling of four vacancies in the syndicate as its summary was pending with the chancellor (governor) for several months.

They announced boycott of teaching activities on all campuses from Monday and a plan to go to the Governor House to meet Chaudhry Sarwar and present their demands.

HED Secretary Mr Momin Agha told Dawn that as the process of hiring of vice chancellors in the universities was under way so the deputy secretary had deferred the agenda because the new vice chancellor would deal with the selection board matters.

He said the interim vice chancellor could not appoint new faculty and decide the promotion matters under the law.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2019