Hyderabad: Academic activities in five universities in the province remained suspended for the second consecutive day on Friday, on a call given by the Sindh chapter of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAUASA). Classes were not held in the Sindh, Mehran, Agriculture, Shah Latif and Quaid-i-Awam universities.

Also on Friday "save education, save university" rally was held by teachers, students and employees and members of the civil society in support of vice-chancellor and against the boycott of classes.

The suspension of classes at the SU began last month when Students Affairs Director Prof Baheer Ahmed Channar was gunned down on the campus on Jan 2. Teachers and employees began a protest movement the following day demanding removal of Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir A. Mughal, arrest of killers and setting up of a judicial commission to investigate murder, withdrawal of Rangers and police from the campus and restoration of student unions.

The protest was suspended following an agreement between the Sindh University Teachers' Association (SUTA) and the governor but only briefly.

Teachers and employees and some students of the Mehran University and the SU held a sit-in outside the Vice-Chancellor House on Friday for several hours.

Protesters raised slogans against the vice-chancellor Dr Nazir A.Mughal, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, and employees joined the protest after first observing a token pen-down strike. Some teachers of the Karachi University visited the camp to express their solidarity.

President of the SUTA, Dr Azhar Ali Shah and General Secretary Dr Arfana Mallah and Ms Rabia Memon, Badar Soomro and Amar Sindhu said that scholars and philosophers like Allama I.I.Kazi and Shaikh Ayaz held the post of vice chancellors of the great alma mater which was now headed by Dr Nazir Mughal.

"One of the greatest educational institutions of Asia was being destroyed because of the indifferent attitude of rulers. The students wing of the PPP has made lives of teachers and employees miserable and its activists were forcing women teachers to take classes on gunpoint," they said.

The rally in support of the vice-chancellor started from the Institute of Sindhology and ended at the academic block of the university. Those who joined the rally included Director of the Institute of Sindhology Muhammad Qasim Maka and General Secretary of the Sindh University Officers Association Ghulam Nabi Kaka. They raised slogans against teachers and accused them of using use to stop academic activities.

The pro-VC group criticised their opponents and said that teachers who were against reforms introduced by the vice-chancellor were opposing him.

They asked why teachers drew their salaries of last month when they did not do their work.

The civil society requested the teachers time and again to take classes. They appealed to them to resume classes immediately to avoid further loss of students.