KARACHI: A black day was observed at seven public sector universities of Sindh on Wednesday in protest against the government advertisement seeking candidates for the post of registrar and controller of examination.

Wearing black armbands, teachers and the non-teaching staff held walks and demonstrations on and outside the campuses.

The protest was called by the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) and associations of administrative officers.

`So far, no government official has contacted us to listen to our grievances. In fact, the government seems to have become adamant to carry out its plan of political interference in universities following our meeting on July 27 in which the government was given a two-week deadline to withdraw the advertisement,` said Dr Ayaz Keerio who heads the Sindh chapter of Fapuasa.Recently, he explained, a corrigendum from the government was recently published in newspapers according to which the length of service for the candidates for the two posts had been reduced from 15 years to 10 years and the date for submitting their applications had been changed from Aug 30 to Aug 20.

`The government move shows that the candidates have already been chosen to be appointed as registrar and examination controller at universities,` he said.

According to Dr Keerio, teachers are in the process of calling their general body meetings to gather momentum to devise a strategy for a major protest against the government on Aug 12 when teachers and the non-teaching staff are scheduled to hold a joint meeting.

Voicing teachers` reservations, Dr Haris Sholab of Karachi University Teachers Society said: `The Sindh government must withdraw the controversial advertisement and adhere to the written agreement made with Fapuasa thatteachers` recommendations on Sindh Universities Amendment Act 2013 would be presented in the assembly for approval.

The suggestions, he pointed out, included the demand for allowing universities` syndicates to retain their discretionary powers to appoint the registrar and the controller of examination.

HYDERABAD: Teachers and non-teaching staff of various universities observed a black day on Wednesday and protested against advertisement of the posts of 19 Sindh varsities registrars and controllers of examinations got published in national newspapers by the Sindh government.

Officials and teachers of Sindh University Jamshoro, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) Jamshoro and Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam protested in their respective varsities on the occasion.

Sindh University Officers Association president Ghulam Murtaza Sial said there were various reservations about the adver-tisement of the posts. If the posts were filled by outsiders, it would affect the autonomy of the varsities, promotion procedure and rights of the officers while there would be definitely a political interference in the appointments.

MIRPURKHAS: Scores of primary school teachers held a demonstration outside the office of the district account officer Mirpurkhas here on Wednesday on the premises of deputy commissioner office.

They were protesting against bribe allegedly demanded for opening their identity accounts in the treasury ofhce. They had not been issued salary for eight months, they said.

Led by Muhammad Yousuf Mangrio and Ali Nawaz Samejo, protesters raised slogans against the district accounts of ficer.

Talking to reporters, the protesters said they had been recruited on merit as primary school teachers after passing the NTS test and they joined their duties on Nov 18, 2014, however still they were not given their salaries, even treasury offi-cials did not opened their accounts.

They regretted that they had been approaching to the treasury office for the past two months for solving their problems but officials there were demanding Rs5,000 per teacher for opening their accounts.

They alleged that when they complained to district accounts officer Changezy in this regard, he misbehaved with them instead of taking action against corrupt officials.

They said there were total 293 primary school teachers who were not getting their salaries for eight months. They blamed that treasury officers with the connivance of officers of the education department were cheating and blackmailing them.

They demanded the Sindh chief minister, chief secretary, accountant general, secretary education and education minister to take immediate notice and ensure issuance of their salaries.

They also demanded stern action against corrupt officers of the treasury department.