FAPUASA flays VCs for criticising ASAs in standing committee meeting

ISLAMABAD: Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) on Sunday strongly condemned the stance taken by “dictator-minded” and “incompetent” vice chancellors (VC) against academic staff associations before the Senate standing committee.

In an emergency meeting of the Punjab chapter of FAPUASA, chaired by its President Professor Dr Javed Ahmad, it was unanimously announced that vice chancellors of some universities showed unconstitutional and undemocratic attitude during the committee meeting, which amounted to abusing their powers.

They said that the eligibility of some of the vice chancellors was in question as they have deceived the search committee by mentioning fake experience and research papers in their CVs, while adding that cases were also pending against them in the apex court.

They further said that only corrupt and ineligible vice chancellors had problems with the association of academic staff, otherwise the association had good and reasonable working relations with learned and academically sound vice chancellors. Harmonious relationship between the academic staff and administration was of paramount importance to promote academic and research activities in all universities of the country, they added.

The statements given by the Punjab University (PU) and UoB vice chancellors in the senate committee were particularly criticised by FAPUASA members who declared them fake and far from the facts.

They said that a provisional vice chancellor of PU wrongly referred to a clash between two student groups in order to hide his own negligence during the important meeting. The provisional vice chancellor was playing a key role in reviving student politics in the largest university of Pakistan to hide his wrong doings, they added.

Such vice chancellors lacking competency were used to blaming the academic staff association for their wrong doings, which was absolutely illogical and unacceptable because members of the association function under an oath to serve the academic fraternity and ensure their welfare, the members said.

They also said that the Senate standing committee should take notice of corrupt practices of vice chancellors who were involved in making money, awarding contracts illegally and abusing powers.

FAPUASA members further said that the committee appreciated the role of the leadership of central FAPUASA for effectively presenting to the committee the long-standing issues faced by university teachers throughout the country, including extension of retirement age to 65 and tax-free salaries.

They demanded from the legislators to give due consideration to the problems being faced by academic staff in the country and ensure that their issues were resolved on priority basis.