Established soon after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the University of Sindh is the second oldest university of the country, imparting education to 50,000 students in colleges affiliated with it in the province as well as the 25,000 students on its campuses in Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Badin, Mirpurkhas and Dadu.
With a strength of 700 faculty members and 2,500 employees at the moment, the university has passed through different crucial phases. Although it witnessed no academic politics during the one unit era of the ’50s and ’60s, the university has always remained in crises due to administration, academics and law and order challenges.
There have been a number of boycotts of academic activities which resulted into closure of the university from time to time during the last 50 years, which has affected the higher education of lower and middle-class people belonging to the interior of Sindh.
In 1974, during the time of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, academic activities in Sindh University, Jamshoro, stopped for as long as eight months due to the protests from student organisations demanding the removal of the famous Sindhi language poet and Vice Chancellor Shaikh Ayaz. Cheating and the copy culture was introduced in the annual examinations of the university and its affiliated colleges after that as the boycotts kept students from attending classes.
Many vice chancellors completed one tenure to face tough times in their second tenures. There are four vice chancellors—Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Mazhar ul Haq Siddiqui, R.A. Shah and Nazeer Mughal—who were appointed for more than one tenure of four years. All faced the protests and boycotts of the various employees, teachers and students on different issues.
Things became so bad that when a graduate student of Sindh University, Jamshoro, appeared in a written or oral test during any job interview, he did not receive a response from either the private or the government sector like graduates of the other universities of Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad did.
Recently Prof Bashir Ahmed Chanar, the director of student affairs, also a retired faculty member of the university, was assassinated (Jan 2) by unidentified armed men at the university premises in Hyderabad. The incident created a great sense of insecurity among faculty members and employees. The teachers went on boycott for approval of their demands—judicial enquiry of Prof Channar’s murder, removal of current Vice Chancellor Dr Nazeer Mughal, withdrawal of Rangers from the university premises and restoration of student unions.
Two students were also murdered at the university after which the parents of students from different areas decided against sending their children to Sindh University. To date there have been 22 student murders at the university. Not a single accused person was arrested by the police in any of these cases.
A majority of students from Sindh University, Jamshoro, and the other universities affiliated to it such as Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) are trying for admissions at other universities in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpur Khas, Larkana and even Peshawar and Quetta.
A 42-day-long suspension on academic activities by the teachers ended on January 31 on the assurance of the Sindh Governor’s team and after the Sindh University Teachers Association (SUTA) dialogues in which Dr Nazeer Mughal was also sent away on a medical leave while a joint vigilance team was constituted to observe university affairs.
However, just after four days, Pro-Chancellor and Education Minister, Sindh, Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, assured full support to the vice chancellor. He did this in a press conference held in Karachi that was also followed by the termination of two professors and the suspension of seven others. The step resulted in great turmoil in the university in particular and all over the province in general. Demonstrations were held by all nationalist parties in Sindh and the civil society.
The teachers and employees of the university took out a protest rally from Jamshoro to the Hyderabad Press Club. There was a suspension in all academic activities witnessed in the Sindh province from Karachi University to Shah Abdul Latif Campus Khairpur. Academic activities were even suspended in Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah), the home district of President Asif Ali Zardari, and Khairpur Mirs, the home district of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
The teachers and employees of Sindh University, Jamshoro, also observed a hunger strike outside the Hyderabad Press Club. A number of personalities supported their cause.
Retired officers including Finance Director Mushtaq Memon, Planning and Development Advisor Mohammad Hussain Shaikh, Graduate Studies Director Dr Rais, Dean Student Affairs Prof Nizam Halepoto are still occupying their posts for years, which has also caused unrest among the legible officers. The appointments of new employees are also going on after the creation of unnecessary new posts by the Sindh University, Jamshoro, administration, something that has also resulted in increasing the university’s financial burden.
Vice Chancellor Dr Nazeer Mughal has constituted a four-member committee to negotiate with the SUTA and SEWA leadership fighting for his removal in order to resume the classes. Meanwhile, judicial enquiry and a joint investigation team of police and other law enforcement agencies have started investigation into the murder of Prof Bashir Ahmed Chanar. But SUTA President Dr Azhar Shah says that the vice chancellor is trying to harass SUTA and SEWA leaders through police raids on their homes. They intend to continue their struggle till the removal of the vice chancellor.
The vice chancellor says maintaining law and order at the campus was the provincial government’s responsibility and he cannot be held responsible for it. He has asked the relevant authorities for the constitution of judicial commission of late Prof Channar’s murder.
At the same time, the Pro Chancellor Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq has called SUTA’s strike unconstitutional and illegal adding that the primary responsibility of teachers was to teach.
He also reaffirmed his support to the vice chancellor by calling him a competent and experienced academician.
The coming days threaten to see more unrest among the students as the educational crisis continues without any visible solution to the problem.
The writer is correspondent for Dawn/Dawnnews at Dadu