Cuts In Higher Education And the Generality of Fightback

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Cuts In Higher Education And the Generality of Fightback By Dr Riaz Ahmed Associate Professor, Applied Chemistry, Karachi University, Karachi Pakistan 0322-2990708 August 25, 2010 It happened in a matter of two days. The dormant working people of universities in Sindh suddenly woke up and surprised the mightiest of education-zars throughout the province. First the Sindh University employees struck for payment of rise announced by the federal government and within a matter of hours over 4000 Karachi University employees were on strike too. They are also demanding ‘Leave Encashment’ and ‘Eid Advance’, both payments are made every year but this year the universities are refusing to pay the due by claiming austerity measures. On August 25 the Vice Chacellor’s office was locked by the non-teaching staff of Karachi University. Employees in public sector in general are demanding higher wages, the anger due to rising prices is leading to a boil. A section refuses to accept austerity, to pay for the crisis of the federal government. On August 24 papers reported the Sindh University employees have struck, the strike continues till August 26, the agitating employees had told the media. Taking cue from the Sindh University the employees at Karachi University also decided to go for a strike. I was there at Karachi University when the non-teaching staff struck. It was a sudden outburst. Early in the morning a pamphlet by the elected body of employees had announced a rally in front of KU administration. Generally regarded as a inept association guided by MQM, its call for rally struck a cord. Thousands assembled at the KU administration which was locked by the agitators. The protesters agreed to go for a strike starting that very moment. The university came to a stand-still. Sensing escalation the KU administration announced concessions. 50 percent increase in salaries alongwith last month arrears will be paid this month and employees will get 50% of their basic pay as leave encashment. But this did not satisfy the strikers. The went on and on the second day of strike locked the Vice Chancellor’s office. One of the employees Amjad said ‘we used to get full salary as Leave Encashment, now they are giving 50 percent of basic pay which is next to nothing’. A clerk argued ‘they are not going to give the Eid Advance, how are we going to celeberate eid?’ A union rep said ‘the university has money to hire two Pro-Vice Chancellors, two Director Finance, payment of billions of rupees on medical charges of elites, luxuries of the higher ups and nothing for the employees, we are not going to accept this nonsense. Leave Encashment is one month salary paid to employees who have over 90 days of leave unutilized. Eid Advance is an adavace salary paid at the end of Ramzan and it is deducted throughout the year from the salary.The administration had thought that the 50 percent raise in pay will satisfy the strikers, but it under-estimated the anger. The next day every department saw employees striking, labs were shut down and most of the class rooms were closed. Usually the argument goes that university employees don’t work, but when they struck it was obvious that it is on strike that they really don’t work. The power arrived from unity amongst the working class inspired many.Scores of employees were seen in departments across campus discussing the impact of strike. On August 25 the Vice Chancellor did not appear till 1pm, the VC office was locked by the employees.

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