HYDERABAD, June 25: Teachers of universities in Jamshoro and political activists held a demonstration outside the press club here on Monday to mark a black day on the call of the Sindh chapter of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association.
The black day was observed to express solidarity with the teachers of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU) who were sacked by its vice-chancellor and to press for acceptance of other demands of teachers of universities.
Addressing protesters, provincial president of the association Dr Usman Keerio and general secretary Dr Azhar Ali Shah said controversial VC of the SBBU Arshad Saleem Arain had sacked 11 teachers to force them to withdraw a petition they had filed in court to challenge his appointment.
They said that for past six months, teachers of the public sector universities of Sindh were protesting and demanding rights that were enjoyed by their counterparts in other provinces.
They alleged that teachers of the universities of Sindh were deprived of these rights on account of interference and influence of the governor’s secretariat and the Higher Education Commission.
They demanded immediate reinstatement of 11 members of SBBU faculty and appointment of vice-chancellor there as per HEC criteria.They also called for appointment of a permanent VC in Sindh University on merit.
They said their other demands included enhancement in HEC grants for universities of Sindh, removal of retired personnel from administrative posts of universities, allotment of unutilised university/state land for housing schemes for teachers, payment of in-serviceleave encashment, relaxation in hardship cases, improvement in the law and order situation in universities and revision of laws governing universities to ensure autonomy, efficiency, transparency and accountability based on principle of shared governance and responsibility.
They said that some of the issues could be resolved by autonomous statutory bodies like syndicate and senate of universities but they were dysfunctional due to autocratic style of governance which was main reason for continuous decline of educational standard and institutional failure.
Autocracy had reached to the extent if any teacher dared question illegal appointment/actions of VCs, he was sacked immediately, they said.