KARACHI: A lot of students visiting the examination department of Karachi University (KU) on Wednesday had to face a lot of trouble when the staff refused to entertain visitors in protest over non-payment of dues.

Investigation into the issue revealed that the university hasn`t cleared bills of the examination department for the past one year, though the section helps generate the institution between Rs750 million and 900 million every year.

`Our over-time dues have been pending for the past one year so we have decided not to work after our scheduled time of 4pm,` said a staff member of the examination department, adding that the staff usually had two to three hours of overtime daily.According to sources, there are about 100 employees in the examination department a major source of the KU earning as the department earns a net profit of around Rs600m every year after payment of salaries to the examination staff.

The department, they say, collects fee on account of degree issuance, degree/mark-sheet verification, enrolment, examination, etc. Around 40 institutions that include law and medical colleges are affiliated with the university.

`The most affected by nonpayment of dues are teachers hired for different jobs, including checking of examination papers. The vice chancellor, who is presently on leave, has been reminded of the problem many times but to no avail,` said a KU teacher.

The university, he said, wanted to run the entire institution withthe help of examination department`s earning.

Upon contact, KU registrar Dr Moazzam Ali Khan, however, denied that the examination department was closed down over non-payment of dues. He said: `There was no closure of the examination department today but I am not sure whether there are any pending dues of any department.

Students` Week kicks off Meanwhile, a number of programmes were held on the campus as part of the Students` Weel(, an annual event of the campus. This included a plantation campaign initiated by the Institute of Environmental Sciences.

Titled Karwan-i-Shajar, the campaign aims at creating awareness of native species andpromoting diversity in plantation.

`Initially, the KU campus area has been selected for plantation but at a later stage the event will cover the whole city. Stalls have been set up at different points in the university, providing guidance and expert opinion by field experts,` said Dr Waqar Ahmed of the institute.

The campaign, he pointed out, was unique in the sense that it would give people/institutions an ownership of the sapling so that plants were well taken care of in the future.

The trees to be planted under the campaign are Azadirachta indica (neem), Cassia fistula (amaltas), Mangifera indica (mango), Moringa oleifera (moringa/sonjhna), Albezia laibak (cyrus), Tamarand (imli), (jungle jalebi) and Tespesia populnea (portia tree).