HYDERABAD, Feb 12: Police raided houses of leaders of the protesting teachers and employees of the Sindh University on Saturday night but could not find any of them.

A teachers’ leader has requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the situation in the university which has remained closed since Jan 2 because of the teachers’ struggle against the vice-chancellor in the wake of the assassination of a professor.

Police are reported to have raided the houses of Dr Irfana Mallah, Amar Sindhu, Badar Soomro, Allah Wadhayo Sehto and Mohammed Ali Ghanghro.

But the people had left their homes before the raids, according to Sindh University Teachers Association (SUTA) secretary Dr Irfana Mallah. Jamshoro police denied having carried out any raid.

A large number of university teachers and employees under the banner of SUTA and the Sindh University Employees Welfare Association (SEWA) observed a token hunger strike outside the press club here on Sunday and reiterated their demand for the removal of Vice- Chancellor Dr Nazir A. Mughal.

The hunger strike was led by SUTA president Dr Azhar Ali Shah and former president Badar Soomro and SEWA leaders Ghulam Nabi Bhalai and Allah Wadhayo Sehto.

Talking to reporters, they condemned midnight raids and warned of a lock-out in the public sector universities of Sindh if such raids continued, They said that peace and order could not be restored in the campus without removal of Dr Mughal.

Leaders of public opinion leaders -- including Labour Party leader Bakhshal Thalho, senior vice-president of the Sindh United Party Syed Shah Mohammad Shah and Professor Taj Joyo -- visited the hunger strike camp and expressed solidarity with the teachers.

Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association president Professor Athar Hussain Mirza and secretary general Mohammad Siddique Unnar also condemned the raids and said in a statement that use of force by the authorities would further aggravate the situation.

 Appeal to CJP SUTA president Dr Azhar Ali Shah has appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry, to take notice of crisis in the university and dismissal and suspension of some teachers.

In a letter sent to the CJP, Dr Shah blamed Vice-Chancellor Mughal for the crisis. He alleged that during his earlier tenure as the VC in 1995 and 1999, he was found guilty of misuse of authority and financial misappropriation.

Dr Shah said that Dr Mughal was re-appointed in 2010 in violation of Supreme Court’s verdict on re-employment of retired officials in universities.

He accused Dr Mughal of concurrently holding key posts at Preston University, Karachi, and a university in Pennsylvania, USA, in violation of service rules of Pakistan.

Therefore, the letter said, the vice-chancellor was unable to regularly attend the University of Sindh and undertook unnecessary foreign tours to continue his service in the United States at the expenses of the university.

Dr Shah alleged that because of his frequent absence from the campus and lack of interest, the university was suffering from mismanagement, lawlessness, corruption and nepotism.

At the campus, he said, four students were recently killed and Students Affairs Director Professor Basheer Ahmed Channar was assassinated on Jan 2, apparently because of the VC’s decision to rusticate 28 students without proper inquiry.

The teachers, he said, boycotted classes in protest to press for acceptance of their demands, including a judicial inquiry into the murder of Professor Channar, removal of Dr Mughal and appointment of an in-service person as the VC, withdrawal of police and Rangers from the campus and improvement in university’s internal security system and revival of student union.

After one month of protest by teachers and employees, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, also the chancellor of the university, constituted a committee for talks with teachers.

In a meeting on Jan 31, the committee, headed by adviser to the governor on higher education Prof Dr Noshad Shaikh, agreed to accept the four demands and prepared a plan for their implementation, Dr Shah said. Under the plan, Dr Mughal was to go on long medical leave and Pro Vice Chancellor Dr Parveen Shah was to act as in-charge VC.

However, he said, after a couple of days, Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, who is the pro-chancellor of the university, said in a statement that Dr Mughal would continue to work as the VC and the Sindh government would take disciplinary action against SUTA leaders.

Dr Mughal called a meeting of university syndicate although it had been expired and elections of members were due this month, at Governor’s House on Feb 7. The meting decided to dismiss SUTA president Dr Shah and secretary Dr Irfana Mallah from service and suspend seven other faculty members and issue show-cause notices to them, he said.

In reaction, he said, teachers at the Mehran, Sindh Agriculture, Quaid-i-Awam and Shah Abdul Latif universities had been on strike for an indefinite period and higher education system had paralysed in Sindh.

Dr Shah requested the CJP to intervene and said: “We hope that being an alumnus of the university and a former resident of Hyderabad, you will take special interest in this matter and get an inquiry conducted to bring an end to the crisis.”

 VC forms committee for talks The VC has appointed a four-member committee to initiate dialogue with the agitating teachers. The committee comprises pro-vice chancellors Dr Parveen Shah, Dr Rafia A. Shaikh, Dr Anwar Ali Shah and Dr Imdad Ali Ismaili. It will try to persuade the teachers to end t6heir boycott of academic activities.

Meanwhile, the university registrar has announced the classes at the campus would resume on Monday (today) and said that the administration had made security adequate measures at teaching departments.