University of Karachi teachers are boycotting classes to protest delays in filling empty positions amid a chronic staff shortage in 42 departments.

The posts were advertised three years ago and selection boards or committees were supposed to be held to choose the new teachers on merit.

Thursday was the fourth consecutive day the teachers declined to teach. On February 3, the teachers’ society demanded the administration put up a schedule for the selection boards which have not been held since 2019.

The teachers decided to boycott classes from Feb 6 from 11am onwards till Feb 13. If KU does not move ahead with hiring, there will be a complete class boycott.

The teachers said the selection boards were already advertised late by 2019 and were then delayed again for one reason or the other. Unless new staff is hired, teachers, who have been waiting for promotions for a long time, will or have either retired or will be about to hit their retirement age.

Dr Riaz Ahmed, an associate professor, said that KU VC Professor Khalid Iraqi claimed that the government had banned appointments in the province in 2019. He added that it was not correct that vice-chancellors had to have the chief minister’s approval to hire staff from Grades 1 to 22.

“The truth is that no permission is required by the Sindh government for the appointment of teachers,” he said. “The only ban is on creating new posts.”

There are at least 20 other public universities and they have been appointing new teachers, he said. So it doesn’t make sense for KU not to find replacements.

According to Dr Riaz, KU has 900 plus positions for professors, out of which only 680 are filled currently for a total of 45,000 enrolled students. In most departments across the university, there are only a couple of lecturers.

“The university has 37 centers and only 4 have permanent directors, two of whom are working even though they have crossed the age of retirement, which is against the law,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor’s point of view

Earlier on, while speaking to Dawn, KU VC Dr Khalid Iraqi maintained that the administration is not deliberately delaying the hiring.

“We have been waiting for official permission for appointments since October last year. The secretary universities and boards haven’t replied to our reminders sent in this respect,” he told a Dawn reporter earlier Thursday.

Prof Iraqi pointed out that he couldn’t release a schedule for the selection boards (related to the posts of associate professor and professor) unless he received reports from foreign evaluators on applicant dossiers.

“In a majority of the departments awaiting appointments, these reports are pending,” he said, rejecting allegations that the university administration was deliberately delaying the process.