The 23rd meeting of the Senate of the University of Karachi (KU) was held on Tuesday at the Chinese Teachers’ Memorial Auditorium. The meeting was chaired by Sindh Minister for Universities and Boards Muhammad Ismail Rahoo.
The KU Senate approved the minutes of its 22nd meeting held on December 23, 2024, and unanimously endorsed the university’s Annual Financial Statement for 2023–24, revised budget for 2024–25, and proposed budget for the financial year 2025–26 presented by Finance Director Syed Jahanzeb.
The meeting also approved the statutes of the KU Endowment Fund and Pension Endowment Fund to ensure transparent, efficient and sustainable management of the university’s financial resources, while strengthening arrangements related to academic development, research, welfare initiatives and employees’ pension obligations.
Addressing the meeting, Rahoo said that being the largest public sector university in Sindh, the KU inevitably faced administrative and financial challenges. He noted that most public universities in the province were currently grappling with financial pressures, and assured that the Sindh government was taking serious steps to address their issues.
The minister said the provincial government had been consistently increasing grants for universities and was fully aware that rising inflation, salary revisions and growing pension liabilities had intensified financial stress on higher education institutions. He assured the KU Senate that the issues highlighted during the meeting would be addressed on a phased basis.
He said the government’s policy was not limited to increasing the number of universities as its primary focus was on ensuring quality higher education, which could only be achieved by providing institutions with financial stability and adequate resources for teaching, research and infrastructure development.
KU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi informed the Senate that despite severe financial constraints, the university’s academic and research performance had gradually improved, reflected in better international rankings and an increase in the number of research journals.
He said sharp inflation, repeated salary increases without proportionate funding, and escalating operational costs had placed immense pressure on universities across the country. He said scholarships were being awarded to students under the Higher Education Commission policies, while special emphasis was being placed on degree award ceremonies, research promotion, improvement in rankings, commercialisation of research outputs and academic activities.
The VC informed the senate that significant improvements had been made in the examination system of the varsity, ensuring timely declaration of results. He said 66 professors and 71 associate professors had been appointed on a permanent basis through the selection board process across various faculties and departments. Universities and Boards Secretary Muhammad Abbas Baloch and Higher Education Commission Regional Director Suleman Ahmed also attended the meeting.
