HYDERABAD, Nov 20: The Sindh chapter of the Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association said on Thursday that massive cuts in grants had scuttled academic activities, work on development projects and day-to-day affairs in all the public sector universities of the province.

The association leaders who met at Sindh University said that all universities were running on bank loans and demanded that last year’s approved grant for the universities should be restored without delay.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the association’s secretary Prof Badar Soomro said at the press club that the meeting had deplored cuts in the universities’ grants, which had seriously upset academic, research and development programs.

He said that the university teachers had not been given promotions for years and demanded that the issue of promotion should be solved on the pattern of Punjab and Peshawar universities as this discrimination against the teachers of Sindh universities was creating unrest.

He said that vice-chancellors of the universities should be selected on the basis of the formula laid down by the Higher Education Commission, which clearly stated that the VC should be a PhD of a professor grade, he should be in-service professor of the same university, his age should be less than 55 years and he should be appointed only for one term of four years.

He referred to a recently published advertisement for the appointment of a VC for NED University, which had not even mentioned the age limit. The teachers had already expressed no-confidence in the so-called “search committee” for the appointment of VCs because some of the committee members had got themselves selected as VC for the second term, he said.

He said that in all the other provinces, VCs were authorised to issue no-objection certificate to university teachers and employees who had to go abroad for the performance of Hajj or Umrah or to attend international conferences or workshops. But the teachers and employees of the Sindh University were being discriminated against because they had to obtain NoC from the governor. This practice should be ended, he demanded.

Prof Soomro expressed grave concern over lawlessness in the educational institutions of the province and said that clashes between students’ groups had claimed many precious lives and seriously affected standard of education.

He said that incidents of robbery, theft and mobile-snatching had become order of the day in the educational institutions of the province.

He appealed to restore law and order in the educational institutions and deplored victimisation of teachers.

He said that ban on appointments in the universities should be lifted in the larger interest of education and all the retired officers and bureaucrats appointed on contract basis, including VCs and pro-VCs should be removed.