Karachi: Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University, known as Lyari University, which was established a decade ago in the well-known area of Karachi, the capital of Sindh, has become a victim of regional politics and the inattention of the authorities, where the students are deprived of senior teachers in their fields and the entire university is junior and Run by part-time teachers.
There are also some departments in the university which are completely assigned to non-department or part-time teachers. This is a university in Pakistan where there is neither a professor nor a dean, in the libraries of many departments of the university. Obsolete books are kept.
The Department of Pharmacy lacks relevant equipments and comprehensive laboratories and surprisingly pharmacy education is being imparted in all its branches irrespective of modern principles.
Lyari University has also been deprived of its permanent Vice-Chancellor for the past two years and the Vice-Chancellor of a Medical University in Karachi has the additional charge of this General University.
After this dire situation of the university and non-availability of teachers, Higher Education (HEC) Sindh has stopped the establishment of any new department in the university.
It should be noted that this complex situation of public universities of Sindh is emerging from the inspection of public universities started for the first time by the Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee, a subsidiary of Sindh HEC.
It is to be noted that Lyari University named after Shaheed Ms. Benazir Bhutto was established in 2010 and it is one of the special universities in which seats are reserved separately to attract the youth living in suburban towns or districts of Karachi towards higher education.
In Lyari University, 55% of the seats are in Lyari, Kemari, Gadap and Millertown, while 35% and 10% of the seats for the whole of Sindh, including Karachi, are on open merit.
The Permanent Vice-Chancellor of Lyari University Prof. Dr. Akhtar Baloch has been on forced leave for the past two years on the charge of harassing a female member of the Assembly through mobile phone. Then a decision was made regarding dismissal.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government led by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has returned to the province after 6 months, but no decision could be made regarding the leadership of this university.
It is being expressed that the term of Dr. Akhtar Baloch is expected to be completed in September this year.
When Express asked Chairman Sindh Higher Education Commission Dr. Tariq Rafi in this regard, he said that ‘in a university that has not had a vice chancellor for two years, how can we expect that there can be any improvement, regarding a permanent vice chancellor. There are more difficulties here due to lack of decision.
It should be noted that the inspection visit of this university by the charter evaluation committee consisting of subject experts and vice-chancellors has revealed the very complicated situation of the university.
It is said that the Law College affiliated to the University is functioning as a Constituent College of the University, the University has neither a permanent Director of Finance nor a Controller of Examinations appointed on a permanent basis, and the Registrar is also temporary.
At the time of the said visit of the committee, there were only four PhD teachers in the university, while according to the presentation given by the acting registrar, there is not a single professor in the university and in this regard, it is also not up to the standards required by the Federal HEC regarding the university faculty. It is not enough that the visiting faculty being called in this university are not professor level teachers.
Two departments Media Science and Islamic Studies have been established in Lyari University in 2023, but these two programs have also been started in the absence of the respective faculty and new programs are being run by visiting faculty, including the Physical Education program. included.
A member of the Charter Inspection Committee, Additional Secretary College Education Faqir Muhammad Lakhu revealed on the occasion that the amount of endowment fund given by the Sindh government for the students of the university does not reach the students and many complaints were received in this regard. are done
Similarly, the most important body of the university, ‘Senate’, met for the last time in 2014 and the budget of the university is being used without the approval of the senate.
Several other departments have been set up in the Public Administration Department building, the infrastructure of classrooms, labs and offices is noteworthy, the faculty offices are in very poor condition and the library books are obsolete.
Further, the Department of Information Technology does not have the required number of permanent teachers, the digital library of the department is inactive, the Department of Pharmacy has only one department of Pharmacy instead of the departments of Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacology, Pharmacoceutical Chemistry, Pharmacognosy and Pharmacy Practice. And there is no technical staff in the labs of the department, four classrooms have been set up for 450 students in the English department.
On the other hand, it has also been revealed that the budget of the university is not presented to the Finance and Planning Committee, nor is the budget approved by the Syndicate Yasinet, while the meeting of the Finance and Planning Committee could not be held in 2023 until the time of the committee’s visit. The committee has described the financial affairs of the university as serious financial irregularities.
Apart from this, when ‘Express’ contacted Professor Amjad Siraj Memon, acting head of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University and vice chancellor of Jinnah Sindh Medical University, he said that this university has been ruined by over-empowerment. is given
He said that during the former vice chancellor Dr. Akhtar Baloch’s tenure, he was pressured to get recruited and was forced, that was the time of gang war and he was also forced.
Acting Vice-Chancellor said that the situation now is that we have recently held a meeting of the Finance and Planning Committee, in which the Director of Finance of HEC was also invited. There will be no money.
He said that various allowances are being taken along with the salary, which is causing a separate financial burden, while HEC is continuously refusing to give house sale.
Acting Vice-Chancellor said that how to recruit professors and associate professors, from where they will be paid, so now it has been decided to meet the Chief Minister of Sindh and request him for a special grant.
He said that a lieutenant colonel (retd) Qaimuddin has been appointed to the post of registrar for law enforcement in the university.
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