KARACHI, Oct 19 Giving in to pressure from official quarters and ignoring criticism from its own teachers, the University of Karachi has decided to reserve 30 seats for students belonging to the interior of Sindh in its BS/MS 2010 programmes.

The seats reserved for Balochistan students have been doubled from 10 to 20.

The decisions were taken at a specially convened meeting of the KU academic council on Monday. The meeting was chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui.It was for the first time that the KU reserved seats for students from the interior of Sindh. The university has a quota for the army (32 seats), Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas (eight), the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (eight), employees (two per cent) and sports (two per cent).

Sources said that at the meeting the suggestion to reserve seats for the students of interior of Sindh initially drew criticism from some members who contended that the KU was already accommodating students from the interior of the province and this measure would further compromise merit.

They said that Professor M. Saleem Memon, KU admissions director, tried to pacify these members and explained that the reserved seats were being added to the total number of seats and the right of the students of Karachi had been protected.

“Admissions would be granted in accordance with the old procedure on merit and eligibility criteria have not been changed. The admission categories of K (Karachi), S (Sindh) and P (Pakistan) would remain the same,” he said.

He also said that the request to increase the number of reserved seats had come from the government of Sindh and had also been discussed in the national assembly.

“The national assembly's standing committee on education twice invited the vice chancellor on this issue. During these meetings, Federal Education Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani also made a request for accommodating students from the interior of Sindh,” he said, adding that recently the Dow University of Health Sciences had reserved 42 seats for students from the interior of Sindh on the request of the provincial government.

He argued that the educational system in the interior of Sindh had totally collapsed and talented students were suffering due to a poor law and order situation. “Keeping in view the request and the prevailing situation in the interior of Sindh, which is not different from the situation in Balochistan, 30 seats may be reserved for the candidates of rural Sindh as a gesture from the KU,” he suggested.

After much debate, the proposal was approved. According to the decision, the seats would be offered in departments which either did not exist in universities in the rural areas or were new.

The departments where seats would be reserved are agriculture and agribusiness management, physiology, food science and technology, applied chemistry, biotechnology, actuarial science and risk management, special education, chemical engineering, business administration, pharmacy, applied physics, genetics and petroleum technology.

The university will not be responsible for the provision of residential facilities to students to be admitted on the reserved seats, the members decided while agreeing that the earlier option to apply in eight departments would be reduced to five in 2010 admissions.

This condition will apply to all students.

KUTS breaks up

The Karachi University's Teachers Society has finally divided into two groups before the society's elections which are likely to be held later this month.

A KUTS meeting due on Tuesday to present nominations for the elections is expected to be a showdown between the two groups with one group lobbying for its postponement while the other persuading members to attend it. According to the sources, the major reason for the growing differences between the members is the alleged pro-administration attitude of some office-bearers.