KARACHI, Sept 13: The Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) here on Saturday demanded immediate removal of the Vice Chancellor.

It also demanded an inquiry into Sept 7 incident at the University of Karachi.

The university teachers body, at a general body meeting on Friday on the KU campus, also rejected the model university ordinance draft and demanded that the implementation of the recommendations of the steering committee on higher education reforms be stopped immediately as these proposals were anti-education and anti-people.

Briefing the newsmen at Karachi Press Club about the proceedings of the general body meeting, the acting president of FAPUASA, Prof Haris Rashid, said representatives of teachers from different universities of the country discussed in details two issues, i.e. situation at the University of Karachi and recommendations of the task force on higher education.

He said use of force against the peaceful teachers and students was highly condemnable and it had brought a bad name to the government and its different agencies.

The incident had proved that the vice chancellor was unable to tackle the administrative issues befittingly and he had failed to enforce to tackle the situation and teachers and students were beaten up by law enforcing agency personnel.

The FAPUASA demanded that Dr Zafar Saied Saify be removed from the post of VC and Prof Perwaiz Siddiqui be reinstated and academic activities be restored on the campus.

It also demanded setting up of a high-level probe committee, comprising a high court judge and a teachers’ representatives, to probe the Sept 7 incident on the campus.

He said that case of Prof Perwaiz should be placed before the syndicate and charges framed against him by the university administration be ascertained only under the existing efficiency and disciplinary rules prescribed in the university codes.

The use of emergency power in the case of senior professors and member of the syndicate reflected the bad intentions of the vice chancellor, added Prof Haris, who is also the president of the Punjab University Academic Staff Association.

The secretary of the federation, Sarwar Nasim of the University of Karachi, said the FAPUASA had also rejected the proposed university ordinance and recommendations of the task force on higher education reforms.

He said that the government was trying to bring changes to the public universities existing structure and statutes in a hush manner as, according to him three different versions of the proposed ordinance had been delivered to university authorities for comments.

He said if the final and authentic draft of ordinance was not made available to the FAPUASA within two weeks time, teachers at universities throughout the country would start a protest campaign, which included a token hunger strikes and a complete hunger strike and boycott of teaching activities.

He said FAPUASA had made efforts to get audience from the President and the governors on the issue of higher education reforms, but to no avail.

The proposed ordinance and reforms on higher education, under the directives of the world donor agencies, would destroy the educational system in the country and deprive the poor of the right to acquire higher education.

Prof Haris said that the steering committee on higher education wanted to cause harm to the public sector universities and creat opportunities for the private sector universities.

He said elimination of teachers representation had been planned, and industrialists, who were least concerned about education had been inducted with a motive to restrict freedom of expression and practice of democratic norms at the campuses.

Responding to a question about the KU syndicate meeting on September 14, Sarwar Nasim, who is also the secretary of KUTS, said that the representatives of teachers would not participate in the syndicate proceedings under the chairmanship of the sitting vice chancellor.

He said that the members from outside the university should also do that. He claimed that the police were not registering a case against university administration including the VC, registrar and deputy registrars despite the fact that the KUTS had approached the authorities for the registration of an FIR against those responsible for an action against teachers and students on Sept 7.

Prof Haris Rashid was of the view that despite assurances to the KU teachers, no practical measures were taken to pacify them.

What has been done under the leadership of Prof Saify against teachers and students had tarnished the image of the VC in the eyes of students and teachers and he should have himself tendered the resignation.

Meanwhile, teachers at the two public sector universities in the city, along with other universities in province, observed a black day and wore black arm-bands in view of a decision of the FAPUASA Sindh to condemn the Rangers action at KU on Sept 7.