KARACHI: The infrastructure of Karachi University is posing a serious threat to lives of its thousands of students, teaching and non-teaching staff, as several classrooms and buildings on the campus are in dilapidated condition and in a state of decay to such an extent that the structures are becoming a hazard to the life.

The teachers, who take classes in the ramshackle buildings, are also worried about the negligence of the administration, which even after being notified has turned a deaf ear to the serious issue.

Karachi University Teachers Society (Kuts) joint secretary and petroleum department Assistant Professor Ghufran Alam told Dawn that almost all departments and residential units, where teaching and non-teaching staff lived, were in dilapidated condition.

He shared that the library information department, where a roof had caved in over a month ago injuring a sociology department student, who received stitches on her fingers, had two more such rooms and had been closed to avoid any untoward incident.

Incidents of plaster chipping off, roof collapse becoming frequent on campus

When asked why the situation had aggravated over time, Mr Alam added that neither the issue was given priority, nor the university had funds for repair works.

He said that letters had been written and Kuts had even passed a resolution regarding the crumbling buildings a week ago before the unfortunate incident, but all in vain.

The building of the physics department was also on the verge of an incident when almost a year ago the plaster of the stairs fell off and students were exposed to the threat, Dr Zeeshan Iqbal, assistant professor of physics department told Dawn.

“It must have been repaired by the engineering department of the university, but the chairman of the department got it fixed from the contingency funds,” he said and added that during the rainy season, classes and teachers’ rooms faced water seepage and leakage issues.

Endorsing Dr Iqbal’s view regarding the water leakage and seepage through the roofs and walls of different departments, biochemistry department Assistant Professor Faizan Naqvi shared a horrible incident where an associate professor of the same department was injured due to the electric current as she switched on the air conditioner of her room.

“This happened two years ago, but the situation is still the same. No one has bothered to fix the problem,” he said.

He said the plaster had chipped off in different classes of the department and now iron bars inside the concrete had been exposed at various places.

“If safety examination of these buildings is carried out by experts, they may be declared unfit for use,” he lamented.

He shared that the first floor corridor of the department of biochemistry had almost no plaster and no one can switch on the lights there due to the leakage and seepage problem, which was why evening classes could not be held due to the darkness. “We had boycotted classes for 10 days so that these issues could be fixed, but no one cared.”

Associate Professor at applied chemistry department Riaz Ahmed said he had been seeing the department in a similar state since 1987.

“The old applied chemistry department which was built in the 1960s had four labs that are nearly abandoned now,” he said, adding: “In the electronic lab, all the plaster has been chipped off from the roof. There is debris all over the floor. Windows are broken. Water is leaking from the workshop lab and the roof has now bent. A major accident can happen there anytime. The building has not seen any sort of repair works in the last 10 years.”

He said that the chairperson of the department wrote a letter to the vice chancellor for the repair, and a budget of Rs500,000 had been also approved.

“But a contractor dumped three truckloads of sand, around 2,000 bricks, and 40 to 50 sacks of cement on the roof of the building. Afterwards, the director of finance held his payment raising questions over the tender. The material is still there on the roof, causing heavy load on it.”

He said he uploaded a video on a social media platform on the issue.

“The then acting vice chancellor saw the video and told him that the condition was worrisome, but no action was taken. No one has visited this place in the last 10 years. And you will see, if any incident happens, all of them would pretend like they knew nothing about it.”

Highlighting the issue of law department building, lecturer Ms Sana said: “The department had been started without a proper building plan. It was set up in an old building hence the poor infrastructure is becoming worse.”

The condition is more or less the same in the residential colony of teaching and non-teaching staff of the varsity.

Retired Professor Mudassir Uddin from the statistics department revealed that while he was living in a residential unit, a part of the boundary wall had fallen and later on an outer wall of the window also fell during the rains.

“During the same period, the internal plaster of the roof of one of the washrooms had also fallen, luckily no one was hurt,” he added.

The teachers stressed the need for an immediate action and professional evaluation of the buildings.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2022