Families of slain varsity teachers still await justice
KARACHI: The Karachi University Teachers’ Society (Kuts) in a statement issued on Saturday, the second death anniversary of Dr Waheed-ur-Rehman, expressed concern over the apparent failure of the government in arresting killers of three teachers in Sindh and providing compensation to the victims’ families.
Dr Waheed-ur-Rehman, aka Yasir Rizvi, a Karachi University (KU) teacher and journalist, was murdered in the city in 2015.
“Even two years after his assassination, the government of Sindh could neither arrest the killers, nor pay the Rs50m compensation officially promised to the victim family,” said president of Kuts Dr Shakeel Farooqi, also representing the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association-Sindh chapter as its secretary general.
He lauded the services of the late teacher and noted that Dr Rizvi was a champion of unity and peace among different sections of society and always supported those facing discrimination and neglect.
According to him, the families of Prof Basheer A. Channar, a former Sindh University teacher murdered in 2012, and Prof Shakeel Auj, a KU teacher killed in 2014, are also awaiting justice.
Criticising the government, he said that it should value its teachers and learn from the governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which had awarded Rs5m to Rs7m to the families of their slain teachers.
“It’s cheaper to be killed as a teacher in Sindh. The government has paid Rs1m to the family of Dr Yasir so far but hasn’t given anything to the families of Dr Auj or Dr Channar in compensation,” he said.
He also condemned what he described as ‘discriminatory’ attitude of the government.
The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association-Sindh chapter secretary general said: “The government must stop playing politics with the universities and deliver as they have been promising. Families of the slain professors must be compensated immediately and the murderers brought to justice without any further delay.”
Representatives of all public-sector universities in Sindh had scheduled a meeting in the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, on May 4 to discuss a strategy to press the government for their demands, he said.
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