HYDERABAD: Three Sindh University (SU) employees fainted due to their 48-hour hunger strike in the varsity observed for acceptance of their demands under the aegis of a joint action committee (JAC) against the SU administration.

The employees, Mir Ali Ahmed Talpur, Mujtaba Bhutto and Imdad Khoso, were taken to Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) Jamshoro branch. One of them was later shifted to cardiology unit of the LUH City branch.

The JAC had been protesting for the past 48 days outside the administration block. Teachers, officers and staff gathered at the protesters’ camp and raised “go VC go” slogans, according to a JAC press release issued on Friday.

A delegation of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association headed by Dr Naimatullah Leghari, office-bearers of Mehran and Liaquat universities’ officers associations, leaders of the Shah Abdul Latif University employees association and delegation of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association expressed solidarity with the protesters.

Dr Leghari said it was unfortunate that protest was continuing for 48 days and hunger strike for as many hours also, but it was falling on deaf ears. He said the VC failed to redress grievances of the protesters and accept demands of the JAC. If the demands were not met within a week, scope of protest would be widened to other provincial universities, he threatened.

Announcing to launch a protest movement in all universities of Sindh to express solidarity with the SU employees, Shah Abdul Latif University employees’ association president Mir Ali Hassan Maitlo said demands of employees were genuine.

SPLA leader Yaqoob Chandio held VC Dr Fateh Burfat responsible for increasing problems and issues. He said that being a member of the SU senate, he had submitted application with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the alleged corruption of the VC.

SUTA general secretary Dr Arfana Mallah regretted that despite the protest for 48 consecutive days, the VC remained “stubborn”. The SU would have to accept 14-point demands, including removal of registrar, she added.

After the 48-hour hunger strike, a protest sit-in would be staged to block the Superhighway, she said, adding that the protest movement would continue until the university was rid of the “biased administration”.

Delegations of Jamshoro District Bar Association and Women Action Forum met the protesters and expressed solidarity with them.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2019