KARACHI: A meeting of the syndicate of the University of Karachi was on Wednesday held without adequate representation of teachers and took several`controversial` decisions, forcing two members to seek recourse through seven notes of dissent.

Sources said that 12 members attended the meeting of the syn-dicate and only two of them represented KU teachers. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Iraqi did not allow request for online participation by two other representatives of teachers in thesyndicate.

Other members included a representative of the Higher Education Commission, secretary of the universities and boards and nominees of the VCand the chancellor.

According to a press release issued after the meeting, the KU Syndicate members approved the minutes, reports, and budget presented by thefinance and planning committee and suggested that all the documents related to the budget and financial matters should be presented in a book form for the members of the syndicate.

However, the sources said that the forum approved the budget without providing a copy of the complete document to its members prior to the meeting and time to review it.

Sharing his reservations, senior KU teacher and syndicate member Dr Riaz Ahmed said the vice chancellor had ignored objections raised repeatedly over the budget.

`The 10-page summary given to us contained too many mistakes and didn`t reflect the actual financial situation. The budget brief showed that the university was not facing any deficit and rather earned over Rs8bn last year,` he said, regretting that it was the first time in six years that a budget document had been presented in the syndicate without proper homework.

The press release said that the syndicate meeting also approved the recommendations of the selection boards held for the departments of Arabic, Persian, psychology, botany, economics, criminology, the centre of excellence for women`s studies, centre for plant conservation, physiology and social work.

However, Prof Haris Shoaib, another KU teacher and teachers` representative in the syndicate, said that the meeting rejected calls for referring cases of some 40 teachers back to the selection board and insisted the decisions of the recently held selection boards were final.`The vice chancellor also ignored our plea that the reports of the aggrieved candidates be opened in the syndicate for the sake of transparency. Since the syndicate is the appointing authority, why can`t the member see the reports of the candidates as was the past practice,` he said.

The syndicate also nominated a retired KU faculty member, Prof Dr Nusrat Idress, currently associated with a private institution, as a member of the syndicate on the Advanced Study Research Board for three years.

The sources described the appointment as a violation of the KU Code as only in-service university professors could become members of the research body.

The KU press release said that the syndicate nominated its member Prof Dr Wasim Qazi as a member of the syndicate on the Board of Governors of the Shaikh Zayed Islamic Research Centre for three years.