KU Teachers Protest Against 'Terrible Conditions'

The dilapidated condition of the buildings in Karachi University during the recent rains, coupled with several incidents of electrocution of teachers, led faculty members to boycott the semester classes due to the neglect shown by the administration.

Express News claims that this boycott started at the beginning of the new semester of the current academic year and, on the one hand, the students of bachelor's and masters have been informed. However, a letter has been handed over to the chairperson Dr. Farhat Batul in which 17 teachers, taking a clear stand, have said that until the construction and repair work is done in the respective department, staff members are unwilling to go to classes and or end the boycott.

KU's teaching body has taken a stand to safeguard not only their safety but the safety of the students as well. According to the teachers, the Vice-Chancellor visited the department a few days ago and said that it would be repaired.

Sources say that the acting vice chancellor of the University of Karachi, Professor Dr. Nasira Khatoon, made it clear during her visit, that the university does not have the budget for construction and renovation work. Rather, it was implied that contacts be looked into for these purposes, mostly through the alumni network.

It should be remembered that despite the visit of the Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi, the situation in the Department of Biochemistry is still the same and the teachers have been boycotting duties for a week. Meanwhile, a student told Express News that the state of infrastructure in the department is terrible, equating it to "doing fieldwork in an old building to research ruins."

Recently, another teacher suffered an electrocution incident due to the bad infrastructure, while the plaster of the ceiling of another professor's office has also fallen. These two incidents are mentioned in a letter written by 17 teachers. The teachers say that due to the rains in the last month, the building has become more damaged, to the point that now perhaps the management is simply waiting for the roofs of the rooms to collapse.

A professor stated that the engineers of the university say that they have to tender for construction and repair, which requires a lot of time, and this statement has been repeated for several months, but till now, the tender has not been given, nor has the construction and repair started.