KU teachers end strike after assurances from Caretaker CM Sindh

KARACHI: The teachers of the University of Karachi (KU) ended the strike on Monday after receiving assurances from Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retired) Maqbool Baqir.

The Secretary Universities and Boards Department met the striking teachers on the instructions of the chief minister and reached a deal to end the strike.

The secretary said the strike ended on the assurance of solving the problems of the teachers on the instructions of the chief minister.

He said the chief minister has issued directives to start educational activities in a better way. He said they would solve the problems of teachers themselves.

The University of Karachi (UoK) Professors’ Association continued their protest for the tenth day for the acceptance of their demands due to which more than 46,000 students faced academic loss.

The professors are demanding to pay their remaining dues of evening class professors and morning class instructors receive additional relief. They said the Sindh government has not increased their salaries.

The professors are demanding disbursement of the remaining dues of evening class professors, and ad-hoc relief should also be provided to the morning class teachers.

The university administration urged the professors’ association to resolve the issues through negotiations instead of boycotting classes, as disrupting academics will affect the education of students.

The teachers’ strike continued for the 10th day as the classes remained suspended in both morning and evening shifts with students complaining about the academic loss.

A complete boycott of classes was announced by the Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) earlier this month due to non-payment of arrears for the past one-and-a-half years.

Moreover, the permanent faculty members are yet to receive the increment announced in the provincial government’s budget four months ago.

KU’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Khalid Iraqi said that the teachers were called for negotiations but they did not come to the meeting.

The Karachi University administration has stated that the M.Phil and Ph.D. fees for professors have been waived, and over Rs 1.15 billion have been disbursed within a year. They added this would further increase the financial deficit of the varsity.

According to the notification issued by the KU registrar, the teachers are now exempt from paying admission, enrollment, semester examination, thesis evaluation, and viva examination fees for M.Phil and Ph.D — which means it is now completely free for them.

It should be noted that the students doing MPhil from the University of Karachi had to pay Rs332,000 while the fees for PhD was Rs407,000.