KARACHI: University teachers in recent days have held two meetings to share their concerns regarding what they described as “controversial appointments” at higher education institutions in the province, and have decided to launch a protest after Eid, sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

The protest will most likely have a larger impact as compared to the ones organised in the past as teachers at a medical university have also set-up a representative body and showed their solidarity to the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa)-Sindh, they said.

“The removal of secretary boards and universities has shattered our hopes for the resolution of our problems as he [Dr Iqbal Durrani] was known to be an honest man. We see no hope, and plan to start a protest after Eid to pressurise the government to make appointments on merit. The date for the protest will be decided soon,” said president Fapuasa-Sindh Dr Shehnawaz Talpur.

The government policy of appointing “its own men” was ruining universities, he added.

Regretting the repeated changes in the vice chancellor search committee, he called upon the government to include credible academics and expert educationists as part of the body that could genuinely select persons on merit.

There had been no progress on making the required changes in the Sindh Universities Laws (amendment) Act, 2013, he pointed out.

Fapuasa-Sindh secretary general Dr Shakeel Farooqi said universities were struggling to survive but the chancellor’s office and chief minister’s secretariat, instead of resolving their problems, were engaged in a tussle over authority.

“It’s sheer bad luck for Sindh that two esteemed offices are unable to cope with the post-18th amendment situation,” he said.

Teachers, according to him, has a long list of grievances over the appointments that include the controversial advertisement for the selection of Karachi University’s vice chancellor and the fourth term in office of present vice chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS).

“Unqualified individuals have been appointed at various posts that include DUHS pro-vice chancellor, vice chancellor of Shaheed Mohtarma Banazir Bhutto University, Nawabshah, and pro-vice chancellor Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana,” he observed.

During the meetings, teachers stressed upon the need for a strong network of public sector universities in the province and called upon the government to establish at least one university, one medical college and one engineering college in each district.

Teachers’ body at medical college

For the first time, a teachers’ body was recently set up in a medical college of the province; LUMHS (Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences) Teachers’ Association. Its president Prof Sohail Alamani also attended meetings of Fapuasa.

To question why teachers felt the need to set up a representative body at the medical university, Prof Sohail Alamani said: “Teachers tolerating injustice for a long time have finally decided to raise their voice. Our institution is run at the whims of the vice chancellor and statutory bodies like the academic council and the syndicate have no authority.”

A strong collaboration with Fapuasa, he believed, would help resolve teachers’ problems at his institution.

The meetings were attended by Dr Mohammad Qasim Rahupota, Dr Arfana Mallah, Dr Ali Ahmed Brohi, Dr Fareed Ahmed, Prof Aslam Pervaiz Memon, and Dr Akhtiar Ghumro and Dr Usman Ali Shah among others.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2016