PU elections – Academic Group divorces Academic Forum

LAHORE – The Academic Group at the Punjab University (PU), a rightist ideology group lead by pro-Jamat-i-Islami (JI) teachers, finally divorced the Academic Forum (AF), a leftist group, on the issue of candidates in upcoming syndicate’s elections, which are scheduled to be held on April 21.
These both groups united against the PU administration, in the beginning of this year, to ‘secure corrupt officials’ in both groups. The PU faculty opposed this alliance because the two groups, the faculty said, supported corrupts elements at PU.
WHY UNITE? The rightists wanted to save Institute of Communication (ICS) Director Ahsan Akhter Naz, who is involved in academic and moral corruption, while leftists want to save the skin of PU Former Disciplinary Committee Head Dr Iftikhar Baloch, who is involve in the sexual harassment of two of his female colleagues.
So, the two groups, who had never compromised on their ideologies, united against the administration, during Academic Staff Association (ASA)’s elections.
THEN CAME SYNDICATE’S ELECTIONS: According to sources, the break-up occurred on the issue of upcoming syndicate’s elections. Leftists and rightists’ agendas could not coincide as both wanted equal share of seats in the elections. Four members from the varsity comprise the Syndicate; with one member from amongst the professors, one from associate professors, one from assistant professors and one from amongst the lecturers.
This year, elections are going to be held after four years and on April 21, around 600 PU’s regular faculty members will cast their votes for the selections of their candidates.
WHY SEPARATE? According to a PU professor, each candidate in the Syndicate had the veto power, and this was the reason that both leftist and rightists wanted equal share. He said leftists wanted a seat for a PU Chemistry Department Professor Dr Zaid, but rightists wanted Dr Haris Rashid, a senior professor, on the seat.
He said that Dr Haris was a strong candidate as compared to Dr Zaid because Dr Haris was popular owing to his participation in academic activities. He said on assistant professor’s slot, leftists wanted the seat for ASA’s Secretary Iftikhar Tarar, while rightists were against this. He said this was among the reasons why rightists divorced leftists.
FACULTY CONDEMNS: The varsity’s faculty condemned both leftist and rightists and said that these two groups just gathered for their own purposes. A female faculty member said that it was shameful that rightists, ‘heirs of Moulna Madodi’, were supporting corruption of Dr Naz.
She said the PU, HEC, Punjab government and even the chancellor knew about corruptions, but still nothing was being done. She said that she was associated with the rightists but she will not support corrupt officials from her group. She said neutral professors would think twice before voting for rightists because they did politics in the name of Islam but supported corruption.
She said she expected Dr Haris and PUASA President Dr Maher Saeed Akhter to play their role in eradicating corrupt officials from the group. Another female faculty member, seeking anonymity, opposed the leftists and said that PU faculty should think twice before casting votes to leftists because they were lead by someone who was facing sexual harassment charges; Dr Baloch.
She criticised PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran on his silence and said that VC should resign if he cannot take action against the corrupt officials.