Tussle between academia, Sindh govt resurfaces

Karachi
It seems like the tussle between the senior academia of public sector universities and Sindh might cause an old deadlock to re-emerge, and lead to another series of boycotts by varsity faculties.
For the second time, the provincial government has advertised posts of registrar and controller of examinations of all public sector universities in Sindh, inviting severe criticism by teachers’ associations to whom it had committed to making amendments in the controversial Sindh Universities Act 2013.
The leading associations of academia, the Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS), Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) and also the Ned University Teachers’ Association (NETA) vehemently criticised the Sindh government for advertising the posts and have threatened boycotts of classes in all public varsities in the province.
They have given the government an ultimatum of two weeks to withdraw the advertisements, otherwise classes will be boycotted and protests will be launched across the province.
According to KUTS president Prof Dr Jamil Kazmi, a similar situation had emerged in May 2014 after the government invited applications for making fresh appointments on the posts of registrar, controller of examinations and director finance in all 20 public sector universities of the province.
In reaction, he said, all academic activities in the all public sector universities in the province had come to a halt as the result of a boycott by the faculty members on the call of FAPUASA’s Sindh chapter.
Meanwhile, the president of NETA and a central executive member of FAPUASA, Prof Dr Syed Usman Ali Shah, said the successful boycott had forced the Sindh government to revise their decision and invite the academia to for negotiations.
In a subsequent meeting held on May 29 last year between office bearers of teachers’ associations and government officials, said Shah, it had been decided that the advertisements printed in newspapers on May 24, 2014, would be retracted and amended, making them valid only for the post of director finance.
He said it was also resolved that the FAPUASA and its office bearers from Pakistan and Sindh chapters would further discuss with the government the fate of the posts of registrar and controller of examinations.
He said the provincial government had agreed that the posts would not be advertised till the amended universities bill was approved by the Sindh Assembly.
According to him, the meeting had been concluded on the note that FAPUASA and its representatives would call of their strike and immediately resume academic proceedings.
However, he said, it was unfortunate that the same situation had re-occurred because the provincial government had breached their agreement trust.
Speaking more on the issue, Prof Kazmi said the Sindh government’s attempt to assert its control over public sector university via the law introduced in 2013 would not be successful. He said the government was testing the nerves of academia but it was unaware of the fact that the teachers’ community was united on the matter.
Before the act, he said, the Chancellor — Sindh Governor Ishrat-ul-Ebad — was the competent authority to appoint the services of the vice chancellors, deans, auditors and director finance but with the new law the powers shifted to chief minister.
Prof Kazmi said KUTS was against the Sindh government’s decision about separate admission policies in public sector universities and demanded a uniform policy across the province.
He said the government was now trying to control the appointments of registrar, controller of examinations, chief accountant and more than one pro-vice chancellors in public sector universities, which was not acceptable to the academia at all.
“The KUTS can foresee what would happen if these appointments are made on the government’s whims, since we have witnessed the fate of government-run schools and colleges and their administrations,” he said. “They failed to deliver and the education system is in tatters. Secondly, no-one would work in the university’s interest when they can get seats after paying hefty amounts and the officials would only be looking for material gains.”
Kazmi said the KUTS was also not satisfied with the method of establishing search committees since they did not contain any educationists. “It wasn’t until the academia objected to it that the government thought about including professors in the committee,” he said.