USWA's Election

It is perhaps a season of change in Islamabad that almost everything is under scrutiny and subject to transformation. Of course, we are not concerned here about the quality and dynamics of change which is altogether a different ballgame. The wind of change is now apparently affecting us too at IIUI and the latest is about the elections of University Staff Welfare Association (USWA). USWA is the oldest among IIUI employees associations (The other of two are: Academic Staff Association (ASA) and Officers Welfare Association). By very look, IIUI appears to be a vibrant and pulsating academic institution with the existence of such associations which are essential for the establishment of an ethical workplace. But unfortunately, this is not the case and we know about it. Academic Staff Association is relatively a new experiment at IIUI and it is still struggling with teething problems. We have earlier blogged here about the concerns regarding ASA. USWA's elections are unique in the sense that it is for the first time that IIUI employees (PBS 1-16) have been given a chance to elect their representatives. There was a democratic significance of this process too as two panels contested elections and as a result existing leadership was thrown out with the power of vote. USWA has a new leadership now and we'll see in future that how the new leadership embraces the challenges ahead.

USWA's election has a lot to offer to all stakeholders at IIUI in terms of positioning and policy formulation. First of all, it has a lot to do with USWA itself. This election was a reflection and USWA members have overwhelmingly manifested their opinions about the old leadership and their policies. We don't want to go into details of issues which dominated the election campaign and the result is so clear now. There were all sorts of issues ranging from administrative cooption to illicit and backdoor recruitments; of course with the help of highhanded administration. We also know about the role of old leadership in the property scam which ultimately led to the creation of a tri-partite (some USWA's leaders, some faculty members and some admin's high ups) property mafia consortium depriving IIUI employees from their legitimate rights. Now with a new leadership, we hope that USWA will critically analyze its previous actions by initiating an accountability mechanism. All of us are keen to see the future direction USWA takes and if it ends up as a co-opted body, as some of our friends have anticipated during campaign, then its fate will not be substantially different.

USWA's story has a lot to offer to ASA too. The organizational landscape of IIUI clearly establishes that ASA is nowhere and virtually a nonentity. For ASA leadership, this is mainly because of an authoritative administration at IIUI which is not ready to accommodate a dissenting and alternative voice. We'll strongly disagree with such reasoning. USWA has once again established that you get a "space" which you "create" for yourself and at time you do it in the name of fresh look and new vision. Leadership is all about making inroads in difficult terrains by suggesting doable and probable alternative solutions. But it needs a strong support base within your constituency which ASA apparently lacks.