KARACHI: The semester exams could not take off on the Karachi University (KU) campus even after two weeks as the standoff between striking employees and the administration entered its 19th day on Tuesday.

Sources said no headway could be made in the talks held between the representatives of teachers and the non-teaching staff — Dr Ghufran Alam representing the Karachi University Teachers’ Society (Kuts), Faisal Hashmi of the KU Officers Welfare Association and Zahid Hussain representing the KU Employees Welfare Association — and Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi.

According to a statement released by Kuts late evening, the VC sought time from the employees’ representatives. “The employees shared their stance in detail but refused to postpone the boycott unless there is a significant financial development on behalf of the administration,” says the statement.

The representatives also met the KU finance director and presented their recommendations but no headway could be made. The associations decided to continue their “peaceful boycott”, the statement adds.

Earlier in the morning, the employees held their protest meetings and raised their grievances over the pending dues. “Teachers, officers and employees have warned of taking the protest movement to a new stage, if uncertainty continued till Eid and administrative tactics were adopted just to gain time,” another statement released by Kuts stated.

The protest, it says, would turn into a public agitation, demanding accountability of all those who brought KU to this dire state.

KU employees had started their boycott over non-payment of house ceiling allowance, dues pertaining to evening classes, copy checking, exam supervision, paper setting, exam vigilance and leave encashment, for a long time.

“It wasn’t a sudden, reactive boycott, but rather a logical conclusion of the continued administrative apathy. Despite our various remainders, the university administration took no step to take teachers into confidence, leaving them with no option but to go on a boycott,” said Kuts president Syed Ghufran Alam, while expressing his gratitude to teachers for standing up for their cause.

The university, sources said, was currently facing a deficit of Rs1.3 billion, pointing to the financial mess the institution was in.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2026