HYDERABAD, July 27: The Sindh University Welfare Employees Association (Sewa) dissociated itself from the ongoing protest after Vice-Chancellor Nazir A. Mughal offered them an olive branch.

Mr Mughal went personally to the residence of Sewa general secretary Allah Wadahyo Sahto on Wednesday where plans for future protests were being discussed.

He offered to hold negotiations with the protesting employees which they couldn’t decline in conformity with their traditional values.

Consequently, negotiations between the vice-chancellor and Sewa representatives were held on Thursday for five hours.

Sewa president, Ghulam Nabi Bahali told Dawn they were calling off their protest on the assurance of the VC as they had joined hands with the Sindh University Teachers Association (Suta) solely for this purpose.“We put before the VC some 43 demands and he promised to accept them all. He also promised to allow leave encashment payments with July’s salary, and plots in the third phase of employees housing society.”

Bahali said that he reminded the VC of about 400 outsiders who were appointed in different cadres against the syndicate’s decision to give preference to children of the deceased employees.

Sewa president said the association would rejoin the protest if their demands were not met at the earliest.

SUTA TO CONTINUE PROTEST: A protest campaign by Suta activists continued on Friday against the rejoining of Nazir A. Mughal.

Suta president Azhar Shah said the flawed policy of the VC had led to the decline in the university’s ranking.

He demanded of the Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad to order an independent and swift inquiry against the VC and replace him with a faculty official according to the criteria of the Higher Education Commission.

He demanded that killers of Prof Bashir Channar be arrested student unions be restored and internal security and infrastructure of the university be improved.