KARACHI - For over a year, the Sindh University is in a crisis that has put a question mark over the present state of education and the future of its students. The chief cause of this crisis is stated to be the inaction of the chancellor (the Sindh governor) and the pro-chancellor, who is the provincial minister for education & literacy. “They should have taken action but chose to stay quiet. These two gentlemen are the instigators of the latest crisis because they brought back the controversial Nazir Mughal as vice-chancellor, knowing fully well that it was he who was the initial cause of the whole problem,” asserted the Save Sindh University & Education Committee in a statement. The committee comprises Abrar Kazi of the Awami Jhamoori Party, Dr Niaz Kalani of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Dr Dodo Maheri of the Sindh United Party, Muzafar Kalhoro of the Sindh Taraqi Passan Party, Bakshal Thalo of the Labor Party Sindh, Taj Mari of the Awami Party, SUTA chief Dr Azhar Ali Shah, SUTA Secretary Dr Irfana Mallah, Dr Mushtaq Phul of the Sindhi Adabi Sangat, Haseen Musrat Shah from the WAF, Naseem Jalbani of the WAF, Jamil Chandio of the Centre for Peace & Civil Society/writer, Amar Sindhu, a writer, Shabnam Balouch of the SPO and others.In a joint statement, they said that the universities were centers of higher learning that produced critical minds through quality education and shape individuals into responsible citizens and future leaders. “In the case of Sindh, the Sindh University, occupies the unique position of being the mother of all institutions catering to more than 28,000 students. Another 75,000 are affiliated through colleges. It has 57 disciplines, 600 faculty members and more than 3,500 administrative employees, and is truly the mother of all educational institutions of Sindh.” Unlike Karachi, which has many public and private institutions, this is the only university which caters to a very large number of students belonging to the rural and remote areas of the province, members of save education committee, adding that more importantly, this university is the fountainhead of the Sindhi people’s intellect and consciousness. For example, the majority of the current Sindh Assembly members have been educated in this institution. Therefore when the university is closed it brings grief not only to its students and their parents, but also impacts on long-term intellectual development in Sindh.In the backdrop of such an enormous impact of this institution upon whole of Sindh and Sindhi society, and the fact that there seemed no end to the current crisis, many citizens, civil society activists, parents, students, writers, lawyers and members of teaching community felt compelled to intervene to bring the university back to its primary role of teaching and imparting knowledge, they added.On august 16th, 2012, a civil society dialogue was held in Hyderabad, in which all stakeholders mentioned above, gathered along with officials of Sindh University. The situation was viewed critically and amidst much heated discussion, following resolutions were unanimously adopted by the house. Following the gathering, they formed a committee under the umbrella of Save Education of Sindh Committee. They alleged that the controversial Vice Chancellor of Sindh University Nazir A Mughal has miserably failed to control the affairs of Sindh University and was considered by the committee to be totally responsible not only for the crisis of Sindh University but his appointment and the subsequent conflict has affected the atmosphere of all other public universities of Sindh. It was the opinion of the house that since Mr. Mughal has lost his moral authority to head the institution, he should resign voluntarily. If he fails to do so, the government should sack him immediately and setup an independent committee to probe all misappropriations in the light of available evidences, members of committee demanded. The committee also regretted on the progress of investigation of murder cases of Prof Channar and two other students and demanded immediate arrest of the killers. They demanded that the government should remove all retired people serving in various administrative posts, in all public universities of Sindh including vice chancellors, adding that the appointment of vice chancellors of all public universities should strictly be made under criteria laid down by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).They further resolved that the rangers and police force should be removed from the premises of all three universities, that is Sindh University, Mehran University and LUMHS. The committee on education further resolved that till such time that student unions are revived, the top two students (one girl-one boy) of each faculty should be picked-up to form a body that should look after the needs and grievance of the students.