Teachers at the University of Karachi (KU) maintained their boycott of semester examinations on Tuesday, leaving over 40,000 students facing significant challenges as the institution confronts a deepening financial crisis. The Karachi University Teachers’ Society (KUTS) declined to end its protest, criticizing the university administration’s ongoing negotiations and remedial efforts as insufficient.
The strike centers on demands for an increase in the house rent ceiling allowance among other issues, which has severely disrupted academic and examination processes at KU. University officials emphasized that the teachers’ union had been fully briefed on the university’s precarious financial situation. Notably, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi formally appealed to the Sindh chief secretary for a grant and bailout package to alleviate the crisis.
In a comprehensive letter to the chief secretary, the vice chancellor detailed the university’s deteriorating financial condition and urgently requested immediate financial support from the provincial government. The letter identified the house rent ceiling allowance as the primary cause of the current fiscal difficulties and administrative unrest.
Prof Dr Iraqi highlighted that while the federal government had announced an 85% increase in the house rent ceiling for federal employees effective November 1, 2025, this adjustment had yet to be adopted by the Sindh government and the university. Meanwhile, the teachers’ society insisted that delays in disbursing rightful financial benefits and allowances to university staff were unacceptable. Conversely, the university administration maintained that fulfilling these demands was impossible without additional funding from the provincial authorities.
