If you hadn’t heard, the students and faculty of one of Pakistan’s biggest university, COMSATS, have been protesting for the past few days.
This all started after a couple of senior professors were let go from the Islamabad campus. The faculty from different campuses of the university united together and walked out of the examinations being held on Tuesday in a sign of solidarity, and what they called a corrupt system. Their demands include job security, medical insurance, Permanent setup, financial audit, timely promotions and merger of ad-hoc allowances.
This protest has had a ripple effect, with students now uniting and sharing their grievances. According to the student, the university has been increasing their fees un-monitored, not providing summer courses and generally not adhering to the HEC regulations placed on them.
In response, the university has had to cancel all the exams taking place till Friday. Furthermore, Rector of COMSAT University Islamabad, Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar said that some faculty members closed down COMSATS University for seeking job confirmation. The protest led by Dr. Mahnaz Haseeb, who claims to be the president of an illegal staff association, came despite the commitment submitted to us, he added. He said that a group of employees including the ones terminated upon harassment and discipline issues. Fawad Chaudhry has even said that he’d be willing to help hold a meeting between the two protesting bodies.
No response has been given with regards to the student demands yet, but it is important for universities to remember that they are not businesses only, but provide an important service that needs to be done effectively. As one of the tweets say, ” Our parents are not ATM’s.”