PUTA Strike Enters Fourth Day Against Universities Statues In KP

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2016 ) : The strike of Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) Thursday continued on the fourth consecutive day against the proposed model universities statues drafted by Higher Education Department, government of KP and termed it a blatant attack on the autonomy of the universities that would never be accepted.

The strike of teaching fraternity of University of Peshawar (UoP) under the umbrella of PUTA has badly affected the education process besides student's studies as there have been no classes in the nearly 50 academic departments and seven constituent colleges of UoP for the last four days.

Due to extended strike, majority of the students vacated the hostels and left for homes as they were not sure about the resumption of the classes during the current week. However, the PTI government remained unmoved forcing the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) to announce support to the strike of university teachers and join their class boycott from upcoming Monday.

The FAPUASA has rejected the model statutes and termed it as a blatant attack on the autonomy of the universities, which would never be accepted. In a statement, FAPUASA provincial president Dr Abdul Shakoor said framing the statutes was the responsibility of the statutory bodies of the universities i.e.

Syndicate and Senate. He urged the Chancellor to take notice of the issue and resolve it immediately otherwise the students protest would spread to other universities in the province. He opposed the 'unnecessary interference' by the Higher Education Department in the affairs of the universities.

Dr Shakoor demanded the PTI government to accept their 'legitimate demands', or else they would start a similar strike across the province from October 3. The PTI government on the other hand remained unaware of the problems being faced by teachers and no body from the provincial government could approach the protesting teachers for addressal of their problems.

The protesting teachers opined that the ruling party was busy staging sit-ins and Raiwind march and they were least bothered to look into the miseries of the people, teachers and students. The PUTA has arranged a protest camp outside the Teachers Community Centre, which was visited by a large number of teaching faculty members, academicians, politicians and representatives of other communities.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Awami National Party (ANP) Central General Secretary also visited the protest camp of PUTA and expressed sympathies with the teachers' community.Talking to media persons, the ANP leader alleged that legislation of PTI government was limited only to files and practical work on its implementation was not being seen on ground.

He further alleged that PTI led KP government was passing legislation in haste without consulting the stakeholders and later violates its own passed rules and regulations, saying Vice Chancellor and University Acts was an example of it.

The teachers demanded immediate notification of the statutes committee in line with the Universities Act and teachers should be given optimum representation in the committee. They reiterated that they would not call off their strike until all their demands were accepted by PTI government.