KARACHI – The row between the University of Karachi (KU) administration and its teachers over the varsity syndicate’s two controversial meetings has taken a sectarian colour, it has been learnt. A high-ranked KU official in an interview with Pakistan Today on Saturday alleged that a group of teachers belonging to a sect has started campaigning against the university’s high-ups to tarnish their image.
“A particular group of teachers had started blackmailing the KU administration after a cracker blast in the university’s premises,” claimed the official, adding that with support from Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS), this group is attacking the university’s top management to press for their immoral demands.
The teachers are well-aware of the fact that the KU Syndicate is working without representation from its senate for the last three and a half years but no one raised a voice against this violation of law before, he said.
Explaining the legal status of six controversial syndicate members, the KU official said their membership had been declared valid until March 28 and this claim of teachers was incorrect. “The six KU Syndicate members attended their first syndicate meeting on March 28, 2008 meaning that their three-year term expires on March 28, 2011,” he said. The protesting teachers are of the view that the tenure of the syndicate members starts from the date of the issuance of circular of their election, he added.
He said the KUTS representatives had met the KU vice chancellor at his office and apprised him about their grievances. The vice chancellor had assured them for declaring the decisions taken in the two controversial syndicate meetings invalid, if the tenure of its six members had expired. “The vice chancellor called a meeting to discuss the issue and sought the legal status of controversial syndicate members,” the official maintained, adding that the vice chancellor declared the membership of six members valid after hearing the opinion of experts and termed the decisions taken in last two meetings legal.
“The management could not invalidate the two decisions as their membership proved to be valid up to March 28,” he said. When reached for comments, KUTS President Abid Hasnain said the KU management is trying to divert attention from the real issue by labelling the row as sectarian in nature. “The KUTS delegation had met with the vice chancellor after the cracker blast for demanding better security arrangements inside the university campus,” he said, responding to the official’s allegation of blackmailing tactics.
Hasnain said the management has failed to hide out its illegal practices and when they failed to do so, they were trying to reshape the issue with sectarianism.
