KARACHI, Oct 17: On the call of the Joint Action Committee, teachers and students of the University of Karachi and government colleges of Sindh brought out a protest rally on Thursday at the varsity campus.

Waving banners and posters inscribed with slogans against the IMF and the World Bank, scores of protectors marched around the Faculty of Science and chanted slogans against the Model University Act, privatization of public universities and hospitals and establishment of governing boards to run their affairs.

The speakers at the rally severely condemned the implementation of World Bank and IMF policies in the country. They slammed the approval of the Model University Act by the federal cabinet and demanded of the present government to leave the issue to the elected parliament.

They also slammed the suspension of the president of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Dr Rashida Yasmin. The speakers belonged to the All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA), the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA), the Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) and the Muttahida Talaba Mahaz (MTM).

Academic and research activities continued during the protest and many teachers and students attended classes and labs at all the faculties and departments of the varsity.

A spokesman for the varsity said that classes and research activities were held according to schedule at KU on Thursday. Meanwhile, senior faculty members of KU have expressed concern over the discontinuation of academic, teaching and research activities at the varsity and asked the leaders of the teaching community to give priority to education rather than politics.

In a letter to the KUTS president, they urged the organization to abandon its campaign of boycott of classes and restore teaching activities at the varsity.—PPI