Faculty members and representatives of student unions at various universities of the country have criticised the protest movement call of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) over delay in appointments of vice-chancellors (VC) at four varsities and said that they will reject such acts, as federation representatives have their own vested interests involved in this regard, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Varsity teachers said that FAPUASA representatives never raised voice over various issues, including academic corruption, violation of merit, plagiarism cases, hooliganism of student unions, thefts and robberies at varsities and now they are misleading people over the VCs’ issue. A faculty member said that if FAPUASA representative are sincere then first they should launch protests against more serious issues at varsities. Teachers said that it will be better that instead of launching protest movements, FAPUASA representatives analyse their own performance and did not play the role of a pressure group in education institutions.
According to sources, FAPUASA, which has strong links with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Islami Jamiat-e-Talba (IJT), is unhappy over rejection of Chaudhry Akram’s name as VC of the University of Sargodha and the protest call is just a reaction in this regard. A strong reaction was observed among varsity teachers and student unions over statement of FAPUASA representatives regarding launching a protest movement against the Punjab government for not appointing VCs until July 22.
FAPUASA President Dr Maher Saeed Akhtar, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Academic Staff Association (ASA) President Dr Zafar Noon and some other FAPUASA representatives announced a couple of days go that they will launch a protest movement if the government did not appoint VCs at four universities including Government College University (GCU) Lahore, University of Sargodha, Bahauddin Zikriya University, Multan and University of Education, Lahore.
A UET professor, seeking anonymity, said that everyone knows that delay in the appointments is an issue and varsities are sufferings while the whole education community and civil society is concerned over the issue but he thinks that FAPUASA representatives, who have lost their worth due to their double standards, are doing no good.
He said that varsity teachers were lamenting the academic and moral corruption at various universities, including the Punjab University (PU) and Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad but FAPUASA members were acting as deaf and dumb. He questioned that why the FAPUASA president did not launch a movement against the recent firing incidents at his own varsity, as around six firing incidents took place last week at PU and even students and teachers were tortured by a religious group. The teacher said that why FAPUASA representatives are silent about the theft of vehicles and motorcycles at PU.
A PU teacher said that actually the most senior representatives of FAPUASA belong to the JI and they never spoke about corruption of their group members. He said that corruption of pro-JI teachers are an open story but FAPUASA would never speak about those issues and now they want to disturb the peaceful environment of other varsities. He said that in the past, varsity teachers rejected such protest calls of the FAPUASA and from thousands of varsity teachers, only one dozen join them. The teacher said that first FAPUASA representatives should come before the faculty with their progress report and tell us how much research or constructive work they are doing at their varsities.
Farrukh Habib, Insaaf Students’ Federation (ISF) president, condemned the FAPUASA’s protest call and said that they want to serve their own interests. He said that it is right that the governor and CM are doing politics over the VC issue and they should consider the situation at varsities, but ISF will oppose the FAPUASA’s protest call. He said that students, youth and civil society is also aware of the delay issue and FAPUASA, instead of protests, should do some thing positive and constructive.
Sabiha, a PU student said, that FAPUASA representative set up an alliance with those teachers who were involved in sexual harassment and won the ASA election on that basis. She said that why a protest movement was not launched when students suffer due to extremism and Talibanisation and face hooliganism at varsity. Sabiha said that why FAPUASA did not launch a protest against Taliban at the PU. She said that the nation and our rulers are well aware of the issue.
Dr Maher Saeed Akhtar said that work at four universities is suffering due to delay in appointment of VCs and there are various issues at those varsities. He said that students’ problems and sufferings could not be addressed by them and they were only concerned with issues regarding administration of varsities.
