Wrong precedence

KU academic alleges colleague of nepotism

KARACHI: Dr Aliyah Bilgirami, Assistant Professor Center of Excellence for Women Studies at the University of Karachi (KU) has moved the court against the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Dr Nusrat Idrees alleging her of nepotism with regard to seniority listings of the department’s academics.

She has alleged that Dr Nusrat has tampered with the documents by removing the experience letter from the submitted file to deprive her of the chairpersonship of the Center of Excellence for Women Studies.

She said, “I have been placed at number three on the seniority list by Dr Nusrat to, out of turn, place the name of her favourite Dr Asma Manzoor at the top of the list. “It became impossible for me to get justice from within the institution which led me to knock at the Sindh High Court”, she also said.

Dr Aliyah claimed, “I was the first PHD at the department of Women Studies and was appointed Assistant Professor in the BPS–Grade19 before any other academic, so obviously I am the senior most here”. She also said, “Being the youngest assistant professor, underlines my claim to be at the top of the seniority list as per the Syndicate’s rule of 2020”.

According to Dr. Aliyah, she has been facing humiliation and degradation for speaking out against the injustice. She also claimed that she has been subjected to mental torture from not just Dr Nusrat but also from Dr Asma which compelled her to file complain at the Harassment Commission of the KU as well. However, she said that her complaint against the dean was not taken up at the Harassment Commission as Dr Asma Manzoor is at the helm of things there.

Dr Aliyah has warned that her victimisation is not only affecting her, but the reputation of the varsity is also at stake as she has been barred from holding a conference that was supposed to be held on the 25th of November at the auditorium of the KU in collaboration with the United Nations on the sensitive issue of “Gender based violence in natural calamities”. She also apprised this scribe that in order to hold the scheduled conference, she had submitted the requests to the offices of vice chancellor and the dean of faculty of Arts and Sciences which were received there. However, Dr Asma being the in charge of operations at the Centre of Women Studies did not allow her to hold the conference, alleged Dr Aliyah.

Dr Nusrat Idrees, when questioned about the allegations levelled against her, said, “Being the dean I look after the academy and have no role with regard to anyone’s appointment as the chairperson of the department”. “And since the matter is sub judice now, I do not want to talk about it”, she also said.

Commenting on the seniority of academics, she cited a rule of the KU, “One who has served for the maximum number of hours at the university, is considered the senior most”. But when her attention was drawn towards a ruling in 2020 by the Syndicate that any academic who gets appointed as the assistant professor first and also has experience as well, should be considered as the senior most candidate for the chairman/chairperson, she expressed her ignorance regarding the ruling. “The decision made by the Syndicate could well be fraught with ambiguities”, she opined.

When Dr Asma Manzoor was approached regarding her decision to disallow Dr Aliyah to hold the conference which was for the goodwill of KU, she categorically denied receiving any such request.

However, both the academics – Dr Nusrat and Dr Asma have denied allegation of harassment levelled by Dr Aliyah. It is interesting to note that Dr Asma Manzoor was appointed in-charge Harassment Commission at the KU within a week after Dr Nusrat’s appointment as the dean.