The faculty of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) held a sit-in against the university’s management for not acceding to their demands.
The sit in was held outside the university’s entrance along Kashmir Highway, under the banner of the Academic Staff Association (ASA).
The protesters have demanded that the IIUI give faculty members their due representation in the university’s Board of Governors, as is the case in other universities, and there should be a consolidated advertisement to fill vacant posts.
The ASA is also demanding that the vice president of the university should be appointed in accordance with a decision taken by the Board of Governors. A large number of faculty members and representatives of FAPUASA also participated in the sit-in.
Along with IIUI ASA, ASA members of Quaid-i-Azam University and COMSATS university also participated in the sit-in to show their solidarity.
The participants were holding placards and banners with slogans of rule of law and to reinstate terminated faculty members in the university. President FAPUASA Prof Dr Suhail Yousaf talking to media said that:
The IIUI faculty has endured to the maximum measures against victimization, nepotism, and corruption in the university. The administration has failed to keep its promises for the betterment of the academic and administrative affairs on campus He said that the faculty is forced to reach at sit-in level after months of patient wait
Now, if the administration doesn’t listen to the fair and legal demands of the university teachers then FAPUASA is bound to stand by their colleagues in IIUI, he remarked.
Dr Suhail said that to boycott classes and closure of universities at national level is very much on the cards if the ASA IIUI demands are not met. Dr Suhail announced that if the IIUI administration doesn’t pay any heed to the legal demands, then Central FAPUASA would hold a general body meeting and press conference at the sit-in place on December 2.
On this occasion, President ASA IIUI Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal said that he would request the high-ups including President of Pakistan, PM Imran Khan and Federal Minister for Education to look into the matters of IIUI.
He appealed the high-ups not to leave this international chair of education to incompetent and corrupt people who have destroyed this institution both at academic and administrative levels.
Dr Zafar said that ASA has long been pursuing its agenda with the administration, but higher authorities seem unmoved and are not ready to accede to legitimate demands of the teaching community.
This sit-in move of ASA is a step towards inviting the government to review IIUI administrative progress of the last few years, which has affected the academic life at campus very badly. Earlier, ASA sent its set of demands to university administration which related to some basic needs of the university teachers in a letter addressed to the rector and president of IIUI. ASA would announce its future strategy in case their demands are not met in these two days of sit-in.
