KARACHI: The universities’ bill passed by the Sindh Assembly on Friday left teachers’ representatives divided into two camps — one group is claiming that they have succeeded in bringing a bill with “required changes” whereas the other is forcefully opposing it.

Speaking to Dawn on Saturday, the president of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa)-Sindh chapter said that he was satisfied with the bill that now contained all necessary amendments being demanded by teachers.

“We support the government initiative. It has accepted all our demands and now there is nothing against the interests of universities and teachers in the bill,” said Fapuasa president Prof Naimatullah Leghari.

Responding to a question, he added that there was no harm if the chief minister gave some guidelines on the university admissions policy. “We should appreciate the fact that the government has given the authority to frame university admissions policy back to the academic council. The clause requiring government oversight over this matter is not objectionable,” he said, adding that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) also gave guidelines on different matters but universities were not bound to follow them (and the same practice could be adopted here).

On the composition of syndicate members, he said that the government had rectified the bill and withdrew its officials earlier made part of the university syndicate.

Teachers, he said, didn’t want to get involved in the tussle of powers between the chief minister and the governor and that members of the assembly who opposed the bill and staged a walkout should have held a meeting with university teachers.

“I think that was inappropriate on their part. They should have consulted us over this matter,” he said.

The conflict between the governor and the chief minister, he said, had been damaging teachers’ interests. “The governor has been holding cases of our teachers awaiting promotion for a year. We believe that he is doing this deliberately because teachers have been holding meetings with government officials,” he explained.

Prof Jamil Kazmi heading the Karachi University Teachers Society, also supported the stance of Fapuasa president while expressing concern over the bill’s clause on the admissions policy, requiring universities to frame their respective admissions policies in the light of the government guidelines.

“If these guidelines/directives are based on fair reasoning, I believe there is no harm in considering them. The impression that the KU doesn’t want to give admissions to Sindhi-speaking students is not correct. They are also our children. But, if the government attempted to impose its guidelines, the university would never accept it.”

On the absence of a clause that allowed students’ representation on the syndicate, he said: “For 35 years, there has been no student representation on this forum as there have been no elections of student bodies.”

‘Rubber stamp’

Some other representatives of Kuts, however, forcefully disagreed, expressing distrust over their colleagues and calling for continuing struggle against the legislation.

“We think teachers’ leadership has failed to protect university autonomy, teachers’ and students’ interests. Under this bill, teachers’ representation on the syndicate has been further reduced as a condition has been introduced under which no university employee or employee of its affiliated college on the university senate can be part of the university syndicate,” said Osama Shafiq, a member of Kuts’ executive body and part of the Teachers Alliance for Good Governance led by the society’s vice president.

The ratio of elected and nominated members (by the chief minister) on the syndicate, according to him, would be 7:14. “This would give the government a free hand to run the universities. It’s also extremely regrettable that the government has taken out the clause which gave students a voice on the syndicate. It’s true that there have been no students’ representation for many years, but there was a clause.”

He strongly criticised Fapuasa which didn’t lodge a protest on the legislation. “How can they when their interests don’t lie with teachers and students but somewhere else?”

Expressing similar concerns, Dr Azhar Ali Shah of Sindh University Teachers Association said: “The government has turned the statutory bodies of universities into rubber stamps. The powers of the vice chancellor stand null and void and it would be the chief minister who will be calling the shots. He can even remove the head of a university under this bill after serving him a show-cause notice and conducting an inquiry. This is unprecedented and highly condemnable.”

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2018