HYDERABAD: 15 varsity senate members boycott meeting
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, July 29: About 15 members of the Sindh University senate from different colleges boycotted the senate meeting on Saturday after they were stopped from moving a resolution against the government’s ban on teachers and employees associations.
A spokesman for the Sindh Employees Alliance (SEA), Yaqoob Chandio, said in a statement that Prof Abdul Salam Khwaja and 14 other senate members from degree colleges wanted to move a resolution against the ban but the vice-chancellor disallowed it.
A university source confirmed the incident saying the members were stopped by the vice-chancellor because it was not on the meeting’s agenda.
The resolution, a copy of which was obtained by Dawn, read “the unilateral decision of the education department, government of Sindh pertaining to ban on teachers/employees associations is in violation of article 16, 17 and 25 of the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and basic human rights app-roved by the international human rights commission of UNO”.
It pointed out that no such ban had been imposed on the teachers associations of universities and demanded that the government lift it immediately.
Both the chancellor (Sindh governor) and the pro-chancellor (education minister) failed to attend the meeting which was presided over by Sindh University Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui.
MMA: Dr Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair, central leader of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said in a statement on Saturday that the ban on teachers’ associations was a prelude to preparation of bogus voter lists.
He said that the rulers had conspired to make massive rigging during the ensuing general elections and the ban on teachers’ associations at a time when the voters lists were under preparation proved this fear.
