LAHORE: The Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan Academic Staff Association (ASA) on Tuesday completely boycotted all classes and staged a sit-in, however, the sit-in has been cancelled for Wednesday (today) after negotiations with the administration.

BZU spokesperson Dr Tahir Mahmood and ASA Secretary General Khawar Nawazish also confirmed the cancellation of the sit-in and the boycott of classes after their dialogue with the administration.

Earlier, the academic activities of the campus came to a standstill as teachers boycotted the classes to pressurise the administration to accept their demands of holding selection boards, Syndicate meeting and others.

A number of teachers gathered outside the admin block of the campus and staged a sit-in and chanted slogans in favour of their demands.

Addressing the media, ASA President Dr Abdul Sattar Malik and Secretary Dr Khawar Nawazish declared that the protest would continue indefinitely until their demands were met. They said the administration would have to address their issues including the notification for the next selection board, a date for the syndicate meeting, new promotions for long-awaited PhD lecturers, and the removal of the contributory pension clause from the promotion orders.

They said that educators responsible for the university’s academic environment and ranking were forced to sit on the ground for their legitimate rights.

The ASA also passed a condemnation resolution against what they termed as threatening and intimidating behaviour. The association stated that any disciplinary action or show-cause notice against a teacher would be considered a declaration of war against the entire university community, prompting a complete lock-down of the admin block.

BZU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zubair Iqbal had issued the direction to all chairpersons and deans to ensure classes and the presence of teachers.

However, the teachers rejected the administration’s directives and participated in the sit-in in an act of defiance.

The VC personally conducted surprise raids at various departments to check teachers’ attendance and subsequently ordered chairpersons to initiate disciplinary action against absent staff.

BZU spokesperson Dr Tahir Mahmood told Dawn that most of the teachers were present in classrooms, while some faculty members, including office bearers of the ASA, did not take classes. He said the administration was holding the selection boards according to the needs of the campus. Rationalisation was being carried out to assess the shortage of faculty and without its completion, new selection boards could not be called, he explained.

He said ASA members were demanding to hold syndicate meetings and present the selection board’s meeting minutes for not selecting seven teachers for higher posts. He said the selection board could select or reject any candidate and could also minimise or increase one or two posts according to the competency of the candidates. The ASA was demanding promotions of some of their members and representatives from the selection board, he claimed.

He said that the selection board was not holding a meeting to conduct promotions but it would make new appointments of faculty members.

“The ASA wanted to make a selection board to work like a promotion board,” he said.

He said the ASA leaders met the vice chancellor and the matter would be resolved soon.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2025