Webdesk: June 28, 2020 – President of Sindhi Association of North America (SANA), Mohammad Ali Mahar, in a press statement today, expressed grave concern at the highly disturbing rumors emanating from Sindh that the government was considering to install an incompetent person as vice chancellor of Sukkur IBA University (SIBAU) after Mr. Nisar Siddiqui’s death. The sole criterion for the selection of Vice Chancellor of SIBAU, the press release said, should be merit.
Following is the text of the statement:
Institutions are not built overnight and by magic. They require a lifetime of hard work, dedication and love of the people behind them. The man who built SIBAU gave his sweat and blood to turn a two-room borrowed location into a world-class learning institution. The SIBAU is a testament to Mr. Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui’s unswerving dedication to his dream, his quest to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
Unfortunately, the visionary who converted a dream into reality is no more. Mr. Siddiqui’s demise is a blow not just to SIBAU but to Sindh education, a loss that can never be recovered.
The names circling the social media as Mr. Nisar Siddiqui’s replacement are worrying and in no way a match to the caliber of the man who built the institution. Especially perturbing is the name of a lady who is the wife of an allegedly corrupt crony of the ruling elite of Sindh. She has already, and incompetently, turned a university she is heading in Sukkur into a failure.
SANA has had a long and cherished association with SIBAU and Mr. Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui. Each year, SANA awards academic scholarships from its funds to scores of SIBAU students, seeing them grow from freshmen to top-notch business and engineering professionals. Mr. Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui made it a point to attend the annual conventions of SANA each year and proudly present reports on the progress of SIBAU as well as the students on SANA scholarships. SANA membership too never felt let down by this man and his institution.
Unfortunately, most of the educational institutions in Sindh have already been doled out to incompetent favourites of rulers as political and financial favour, which has brought the whole educational system in Sindh to its current sorry state. Mr. Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, resisting all the political and social pressures and intimidation, built this institution to what it is today – the pride of Sindh and Pakistan. Mr. Siddiqui’s labour of love should not go to ruin.
SANA calls upon the Government of Sindh to nominate a person worthy of the SIBAU as its head. Imposing an incompetent person on the institution will be considered an act of animosity against the people of Sindh.
SANA considers the SIBAU an investment in the future of Sindh and reiterates its stance that any step to harm this great institution will be considered an affront against the people of Sindh, which SANA will leave no stone unturned to resist.
SANA also requests the civil society of Sindh to pressure the Sindh government to desist from imposing an unworthy favourite on the SIBAU. SIBAU deserves the best of the best persons to head it.
SIBAU is an asset for Sindh, which should at no cost be allowed to be destroyed at the altar of political and financial expediency and favouritism of the government.
