KARACHI, Oct 28: Teachers and students from universities and colleges brought out a peaceful rally on Monday to register their protest against the government’s move to make changes in the existing university rules and introduce reforms in higher education system.

A good number of teachers assembled at the auditorium of the Government Islamia Arts and Commerce College and at around 12.40pm they came out to march towards the Guru Mandar roundabout.

Chanting slogans and holding banners against the government policies, the teachers and students, who were also joined by representatives of the Pakistan Medical Association and the Karachi Union of Journalists, were guarded and monitored by police personnel. They held a demo and protest meeting on Jigar Murad Abadi Road.

Representatives of the Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS), Sindh Professors and Lecturers’ Association (SPLA), the PMA, the KUJ and students bodies and an MPA-elect of the area, Nasrullah Khan Shajee, criticized the government for its proposed model university act, privatisation of higher education, formation of board of governors in medical colleges, hospitals and other government institutions and termed it a “whimsical affair”.

The teachers and students have been protesting against the government’s move on higher education for the last over five months. A draft model university ordinance has been approved by the federal cabinet, but some of the government functionaries are making efforts to convince the teachers and students that the reforms and ordinance are in the larger national interest.

However, the speakers at the protest meeting at Guru Mandar were of the view that if the government thought that it was all good for education and people of the country then why it was in a hurry and wanted to implement the reforms prepared by a limited group of private entrepreneurs at the behest of the IMF, World Bank and the US without taking into confidence the teachers and students and their parents.

KUTS president Sarwar Nasim, who is also the president of the Federation of All-Pakistan University Academic Staff Association, said the protest against the MUO and other “anti-education and anti-people” policies of the government would continue till educational affairs were run for the uplift of the masses in a real way.

He refuted a statement by federal education minister that a dialogue between the university staff and the government was in progress on the model university act. “In fact, there is a deadlock on the issue and if the demands of the joint action committee against the proposed higher education polices were not accepted, teachers in Karachi will not refrain from continuing their legal and peaceful protest as per democratic norms,” Mr Nasim said.

SPLA Karachi leader Athar Hussain said that college teachers fully endorsed the policies of the university teachers and would continue extending support to them. He said that higher education policies tailored at the behest of the world bank and the IMF or any other American group would not work in the case of education in Pakistan and would further cause damages to the process of education in the country.

The President of KUJ, Qamarullah Chaudhry, said the government should not be in a hurry on the issue of universities and leave the matter up to the elected government to resolve the problem. Any hush-hush and hurry implementation of the higher education proposals on the part of the government would show that there were many more adversities in the store.

The MPA-elect, Nasrullah Shajee, assured the rally that if the MMA came to power they would consider the demands of the teachers and students and other bodies sympathetically. No government can keep itself aloof from the problems and concerns of the teaching community and students, he said.

The government was also criticized for the formation of boards of governors in government hospitals, arrest of Dr Amir Aziz for giving medical aids to mujahideen and for allegedly torturing some journalists recently.

PMA representatives Dr Qaiser Sajjad, secretary of the KUTS, Dr Riaz Ahmad, Prof Abdul Qadeer and other also spoke.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for FAPUASA said that the statement by federal minister for education in Lahore that amendments to the proposed model university ordinance were made after suggestions by teachers’ associations was not correct. Such statements were an attempt to hoodwink the public, he added.

He said FAPUASA president Sarwar Nasim had written a letter to the minister on Oct 25, rejecting the latest amendments to the MUO. The ministry of science and technology is trying to thwart the protest of doctors and teachers by implying that teachers have been consulted, he added.