Daily Times

KARACHI: A black day announced by associations of college and university teachers was postponed after a meeting between a delegation of protesting teachers and CM Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday.

Dr Moiz Khan, the secretary of Karachi University Teachers Society, told Daily Times that the CM had assured the delegation that the controversial Universities Act of 2018 would be reviewed for all the reservations of the teachers.

He said that the CM also said that the presence of bureaucracy in the syndicate would be reviewed.

Over admission policies, the CM gave the delegation an assurance that academic councils of respective universities would have the final say in the matter.

The CM further assured the delegation that the issue of pending cases of hardship of senior faculty members would be solved at the earliest.

The protesting teachers contend that the bill, yet to be approved by the governor in his capacity as the chancellor, would not only shift his powers to the chief minister and leave him with a ceremonial role, but also take away institutional powers and nullify the independent role of university syndicate and academic council.

According to sources, Bilwal Bhutto Zardari played a vital role in bringing the government to review the bill.

As in a recent tweet, Bilwal said, “There seems to be a lot of conspiracy theories about the fate of the 18th amendment. Let me make PPP position clear; the fundamentals of the 18th amendment & 1973 constitution are non-negotiable. Come hell or high water we will not compromise on our constitution’s integrity.”

On other hand, Pasban-e-Pakistan, a civil society organization, has challenged the universities bill in the Sindh High Court, saying that 24 universities of Sindh would be in charge of the Chief Minister and this would lead to politicisation of higher educational institutes.

Advocate Irfan Aziz submitted in the court that the bill was an attempt to close the door of institutions in urban areas to students from across the province.

While talking to the media, Pasban president Altaf Shakoor stressed that the universities must be freed from political pressure.

He said universities could not function without true autonomy and academic freedom. He said unless we gave autonomy to our varsities, the future of our youth will remain in jeopardy.

He said giving universities under full control of a chief minister would be a sure shot recipe for disaster. “How would a CM know the multi-faceted demands of the academic world,” he asked, adding, “could our CM see such political influences on American universities he went to?”

Published in Daily Times, March 14^th 2018.