Academic Freedom in Pakistani Universities

Recently, Mohammad Nauman, an associate professor at N.E.D University
in Karachi (and who has been serving for 22 years) landed into trouble
when in a meeting of the Senate of the University he agreed with the
Chancellor (Governor of Sindh) in questioning the way a massive amount
of nearly one crore (10 million) rupees were being spent in setting up
an Internet/Intranet infra-structure at the University.

As a penalty for airing his views, the University administration
served him with a show cause notice. And later charge-sheeted him for
misconduct, and has threatened to start disciplinary proceedings
against him.

The Senate of the University is the highest authority where policies
and financial matters are considered and approved. This body includes
a cross-section of society including academicia, experts and elected
representatives, and has been instituted to safeguard the national
interest in the working of the public funded Universities. No show
cause can be issued on the basis of discussions held in the
meetings of this highest authority. More specifically, the Vice
Chancellor cannot issue such notices as the Senate meeting is chaired
by the Chancellor.

However this controversy goes deeper than the actual specifics of the
incident. It depicts the continuing non-transparent and inefficient
manner in which our public Universities spend our tax money, and the
authoritarian and illegal way in which the University administrations
stamp out dissent and voices for accountability. If such is the level
of tolerance in our institutions of higher learning, then what kind of
training of a democratic culture would the cream of our students get?