SAHIWAL: The strike by faculty members of Comsats University local campus, who are mainly demanding regularisation of their jobs, entered second day here on Wednesday as they boycotted all academic activities and decided not to conduct examinations beginning on Thursday (today).

The strike call was given by the varsity’s Academic Staff Association (ASA).

A source on campus told Dawn that it had been decided that none of the faculty members would conduct the upcoming final examination starting from June 20 if their demands were not met.

On the other hand, local campus Deputy Registrar Safder Ali issued a notice saying: “All kinds of academic activities will remain suspended on June 20-21 and new date-sheet for the examination will be shared [with the candidates] soon”.

It is learnt around 4,000 students will be affected by the strike.

ASA local campus president Dr Sabir Ali said that all the faculty members had been working on contracts since day one and many of them had now more than 10-15 years of service at the institution.

He said under Comsats University Act, Clause 21-22 “each staff member has to be given permanent job status after completion of his/her probation period,” but sadly that did not happen.

He said even the rectors and provost worked on contract basis till completion of their terms.

Association secretary general Dr Qamer-uz-Zaman said, “None of our demand is illegal”. He argued that the CU was a public sector varsity set up under ministery of science and technology, so technically speaking all the staff members, either working against academic or administrative posts, were employees of the Government of Pakistan.

So, he said, like other public sector institutions the CU should also regularise the service of its contract-based employees after completion of their probation period.

He regretted that on one hand, science and technology minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain was negotiating with the ASA, while on the other local campus administration was terming the association “illegal and black-listed entity”.

Dr Sabir strongly condemned an official handout which said some faculty members were “illegally claiming job confirmation”. “It was our legal and constitutional right”, he added.

He said the ASA demanded permanent appointment and regularisation of service, uniformity in salaries of lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and professors, besides health insurance, merger of ad hoc allowance, annual increments, and permanent government employees service structure for the academic staff.

He said the strike would continue until the central ASA reached an agreement with the federal government.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2019