SSC exam forms schedule | FUUAST LLB, LLM admission

BSE Karachi extended enrolment and registration date
Karachi, Feb 16: The Board of Secondary Education Karachi has extended the date for the acceptance of enrolment, registration and exam forms of SSC Part-I and -II and SSC both parts (combined) annual examination-2009 of Science and General groups with a late fine of Rs1,500 from February 16 till the end of the exams.

Meanwhile, the news lab of Mass Communication department of Karachi University has been named after late Sarwar Naseem, who remained a faculty member of the department till his death, for the services he rendered for the cause of journalism.

This was announced at a memorial meeting held at the campus on Saturday to mark his second death anniversary. The deceased was also a former president of Karachi University Teachers Society. Dr Zakariya Sajid presided over the memorial meeting. App

KU gives last chance to students to complete degree course
Students of the University of Karachi (KU) who failed in a maximum of two papers and could not complete their degree programmes are being given a last chance with examination fee of Rs2,000 and re-enrolment fee of Rs1,000. An announcement to this effect was made on Sunday by the Adviser of KU's Semester Examinations Section, Prof. Dr M Javed Zaki. He said that this was being done in pursuance of the Deans Committee Resolution No (3) dated January 16, 2009. Students have been directed to submit an application between February 20 and 28 at the Counter of Semester Examinations Section located in the Examinations Department. After scrutiny of the applications by the Semester Examinations Section, the students will be declared eligible or otherwise for the submission of fee to appear in the Special Examination 2009.

FUUAST extends LLB, LLM admission fee date
Karachi: Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science & Technology (FUUAST) has extended the date of submission for the admission fee of LLB and LLM to February 25.

The university has also announced the new dates for the postponed papers of BL, LLB and LLM examinations. The paper of BL (First Year) has been rescheduled for February 19, the exam on February 12 will now be held on February 21, and the exam on February 14 will be held on February 24.

The BL (Second Year) papers for February 5 will be held on February 23, the exam on February 13 will be held on February 25, and February 16 exam will be held on February 27.

The papers of LLB (Final Year) have been postponed from February 10 to February 19, from February 12 to February 21, and from February 14 to February 24. The LLM (First Year) paper has been postponed from February 10 to February 19 and LLM (Final Year) exam scheduled for February 5 will be held on February 19, from February 13 to February 23, and the February 16 exam will now be held on February 25. The News

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SPLA calls for regularising ad hoc lecturers
Hyderabad: Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association on Saturday staged a rally for the acceptance of their demands. The rally started from the Muslim Science College and after marching on main city roads, terminated outside the press club. Hundreds of college teachers, including females participated.

Prof Liaquat Aziz, Muzaffar Rizvi, Shafqat Jokhio and others called for regularisation of ad-hoc teachers, posting orders of 1,000 and filling of Grade 18-19 vacancies through promotions.

Rejecting privatisation of educational institutions, they asked for the restoration of PhD allowance, uniformity in pay and allowances of those serving in rural areas as with that of urbane and rise in non-attractive allowance.

They further demanded lifting of ban on teachers' organisations, promotion of librarians and DPAs, filling of 3003 teachers' positions in different colleges through the Sindh Public Service Commission and permanent appointments of principals.

Varsity teachers allege discrimination
Hyderabad: The Sindh chapter of the Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association has accused the Higher Education Commission of discriminating against university teachers of Sindh, and demanded removal of all vice-chancellors who had retired from service.

The federation's secretary Prof Badar Soomro said at a news conference at the press club on Sunday that teachers of public universities in the province were facing discrimination in promotion and award of scholarships and demanded that they be treated like their counterparts in the Punjab and Peshawar universities.

He said that in all hardship cases of Punjab and Peshawar universities, the lecturers, assistant professors and associate professors who had served for years, had been upgraded by the university authorities and the HEC, but the university teachers of Sindh had been completely ignored.

He said that 30 lecturers, 208 assistant professors and 82 associate professors of Mehran, Sindh, Karachi, Agriculture, Quaid-i-Awam, Shah Latif and NED universities were eligible and qualified for upgradation but they were deprived of their rights.

He wondered why the same rule was not being applied to the university teachers of Sindh which had been applied to the university teachers of Peshawar and Punjab.

He rejected the argument put forth by the HEC about unavailability of vacant posts, unavailability of foreign scholarships and ban on promotion of non-PhD teachers when it came to teachers of Sindh.

He expressed fear if the university teachers were not upgraded they would leave for greener pastures as the private sector companies and corporations were offering huge salaries to qualified engineers.

Mr Soomro demanded that an eminent educationist should be appointed as permanent chairman of the HEC to solve problems of university teachers and alleged that the acting chairman of the commission knew nothing about academic issues.

He regretted that the scholarship of the teachers who had been sent abroad for PhD had been stopped and demanded resumption of their scholarships to enable them to complete their assignments.

Citing another example of discrimination, Mr Soomro said that PhD scholarships had been sanctioned for 1000 teachers of Punjab, 600 for the NWFP and only 59 for Sindh.

To a question about financial crisis, he said that if cuts had to be made and they were unavoidable they should be made in the construction of buildings and not in academic funds. Buildings without academic activities were of no use, he argued. Dawn

Suffa University to be set up in DHA-II on Super Highway
Karachi: Around eight years ago, a charter was awarded to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) for building a university. This charter, however, is yet to be utilised, even though the DHA says that it still plans to set up its own university - not at any site at the existing DHA phases but at an altogether new location somewhere at the upcoming DHA-II project on the Super Highway.

It could not be ascertained, however, whether the charter awarded to the DHA for its Suffa University is still valid after the passage of eight years or even more. Meanwhile, circles concerned in the education sector already have serious reservations over the grant of a charter by the government to a university that has no physical existence and is yet to commence academic activities.

DHA Director Education Brig. (retd) Iftikhar Arshad said that while the authority had failed to find a suitable amenity plot in the existing phases of the DHA for establishing the university, it would now establish the university in the DHA-II on the Super Highway as part of a much wider education city project along with schools, colleges, and a medical complex.

He said that hopefully the charter awarded to the DHA many years back for the Suffa University would be useful in setting up the university at the new site.

University of Karachi (KU) Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Pro-VC) Prof. Dr Akhlaq Ahmad, who had also served as an adviser on higher education to the DHA, said that a piece of land had been initially reserved in DHA Phase-VIII near the Defence Authority (DA) O/A-level School for establishing the university. This land, however, was later taken over by the DHA's Creek City Project.

Dr Ahmad, who was especially hired by the DHA to set up its university, said that progress on the Suffa University project stalled later despite the finalisation of the concept due to the unavailability of a suitable piece of land. Obviously the DHA is a housing authority that runs on commercial lines and it is difficult to see how setting up a university would be among its priorities for a long period of time, he said.

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Executive Director Dr Sohail H Naqvi, based in Islamabad, said that he was aware of the case of the DHA Suffa University and as such the HEC did not recognise the university as the case had been that since grant of charter to the university in question it had not awarded even a single degree.

The name of the DHA Suffa University, however, is listed on the HEC website among the list of chartered universities and degree-awarding institutes in the private sector.

Dr Naqvi said the DHA Suffa University should have been granted the charter before the 2002 federal cabinet's adoption of a revised and stringent criteria and guidelines for award of charter to upcoming universities. After the adoption of the revised criteria it was not possible for any budding university to receive charter before commencement of academic activities. "Once the DHA builds its university and starts educational activities we will assess and evaluate it from scratch for due recognition. In the present circumstances however, we cannot recognise the university," Dr Naqvi said.

The DHA had applied and received the charter on the basis of its existing colleges imparting degree education whose facilities and buildings would have been initially utilised for building faculties of the proposed Suffa University, Dr Akhlaq Ahmad said.

He said that as such there was no anomaly in the award of a charter to the Suffa University because for the facilities of the existing DHA colleges were shown to the authorities concerned. Dr Ahmad said that after the required piece of land was not available he had suggested to the DHA authorities that the university should be launched on the basis of existing degree colleges of the authority with a centralised control of faculties. As such the revised concept of the university was very similar to that of some of the prestigious universities of the world, including Oxford, which had a number of constituent colleges. This concept, however, could not materialise either, Dr Ahmad said.

"In the initial years, launching the university was essential for the DHA in view of frequent correspondence of the HEC and other government authorities concerned who wanted to see early utilisation of the charter awarded for the Suffa University," he said.

The KU Pro-VC said he had initially recommended that the Suffa University should comprise of the faculties of business administration, science, social sciences, and education.

Defence Residents' Association (DRA) Secretary Asad Qizilbash said that the DHA establishing its own university would simply mean "cheapening" the very term university. "The DHA confining itself to running schools and colleges would be a fine idea but it should not go for setting up a university itself as varsities with proper campuses and academic facilities cannot be set up in every major residential locality of the city," he said.

DHA spokesman Lt Col (retd) Rafat Naqvi said that the DHA had stalled the progress on the Suffa University project some years back because it was running 19 educational institutions and these were enough to cater to the academic needs of the Defence residents.

He said that if the DHA wanted to set up its own university, it should establish one offering higher education in a specialised field rather than running a general purpose university similar to the academic model of KU. The News

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