KARACHI: All major associations of college and university teachers in Sindh have unanimously rejected the Universities Amendment Act of 2018, announcing a black day to be observed across campuses on Tuesday. “Nowhere in the world or in other provinces of Pakistan, the government controls the admissions policies,” said Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) president Prof. Dr. Kaleem Bareech. He demanded that the government should roll back all changes made to the law and restore the right to frame admission policies to academic councils. Professor Dr Shakeelur Rehman Farooqui, the secretary of the FAPUASA, said that the chancellor was the best person to look after and supervise the affairs of public universities. “Elected political leadership cannot be allowed to control universities in the place of the chancellor.” Farooqui added that if that was allowed to happen, higher education would suffer in the province. FAPUASA Sindh Chapter president Prof. Dr. Naimat Ullah Laghari told the media that the government of Sindh had not held up its end of the bargain. He said, “we had a meeting with CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, and he assured that the autonomy of the universities of Sindh would be restored; however most of the points have not been fulfilled.” “We were told that the draft of the act would be shared before it would be placed in the assembly. Unfortunately, the draft was not shared, and some things were overlooked by the government and finalised without our input.” Laghari informed the media that in the new act the government has introduced a clause according to which a person with no background in academia could become a Vice Chancellor of any university. “This clause is against the basic structure and hierarchy of universities. VC as head of the university chairs all the meeting of statutory bodies including BASR, where the matters of PhD and MPhil degrees are discussed.” Meanwhile, students, teachers and employees of Karachi University protested against the controversial Universities Act 2018 at the KU campus. M. Farhan Khan President of Employees Welfare Association KU said, “we don’t want KU to become a mirror image of Karachi city, that is why we don’t want the CM as the Chancellor of our university.” Muneebul Tauheed, the general secretary of the Students Federation of Pakistan, said “all universities and students of Sindh unanimously reject this black bill.” On the other hand, CM Murad Ali Shah said that the bill was passed after a thorough consultation with the FAPUASA. “We consulted the vice chancellors and teachers association (FAPUASA) before legislating the law,” he claimed, adding that FAPUASA’s representatives, who were opposing the amendment bill, had perhaps not read the draft. Published in Daily Times, March 13th 2018.