KARACHI: Several Karachi University (KU) teachers aspiring for promotion protested on the campus over a delay in the hiring process pending since 2019 on Tuesday when the administration finally held the thrice-postponed selection board of the Institute of Environmental Studies (IES) and that too only for the post of associate professor.

Sources said five candidates, three internal and two external, appeared in the selection board that went smoothly.

The IES selection board, first organised in January this year, was declared null and void by the secretary of universities and boards on the grounds that the vice chancellor had not taken permission for the process from the government. The step was strongly contested by KU teachers. Later, the university acquired permission from the provincial government for the selection board and planned it twice, but they were postponed.

On Tuesday, teachers gathered in front of the administrative block and shared their grievances.

They demanded that the administration announce a schedule for the selection boards pending since 2019 without any further delay.

“The process is being delayed for one or the other reasons due to which many teachers, who had been waiting for their promotions for a long time, have either retired or are about to hit their retirement age,” stated a press release by the KU selection board action committee.

Currently, there are 136 vacant posts for lecturer, 45 for assistant professors, 37 for associate professors and 110 vacant posts for professors, on the campus.

Speaking to Dawn, KU Vice Chancellor Prof Khalid Mahmood Iraqi said he would soon meet the secretary universities and boards over the issue.

“I am told that the university couldn’t get permission for holding the selection boards [from the government] other than IES. So, I will be meeting the secretary soon to sort out the issue,” he said, adding that he held selection boards of 2012, 2014 and 2016 when he headed the university as the acting vice chancellor of KU for three years.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2022