Article 1: Name
1.1 The official name of this organization shall be the “Teachers’ Rights Association, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur”.
1.2 The association shall use the acronym, TRA IUB, in all of its publicity materials and correspondence.
Article 2: Structure
2.1 The structure of the Teachers’ Rights Association shall comprise of the bodies.
2.2 The hierarchy of the higher to lower bodies shall be as depicted in the following figure.
Article 3: Congress
3.1 Congress shall be the supreme body of the association.
3.2 Congress shall comprise of all the members of the association.
3.3 Congress shall meet regularly every year, preferably during the first three weeks of the Spring semester.
3.4 Congress shall have 51% of its members present to be valid.
3.5 Congress shall take sovereign decisions on all matters concerning the association.
3.6 Congress shall review the performance of the previous year and shall determine the tactics (mode of action), the general line of working for the next year.
3.7 Congress shall discuss the most important matters affecting the teaching workers of the university, and shall adopt decisions with regard to solidarity, the mobilization of community opinion and the struggle to defend the community’ interests.
3.8 Congress shall examine and endorses the reports of all the lower bodies.
3.9 Congress shall amend the present constitution: program, rules and structure.
3.10 Congress shall have the right to replace some of the members of any association body, to remove those who have failed to carry out their duties and to elect others in their place. Such a change must not, however, affect more than one fifth of the total number of members of that body that was initially elected by the general elections.
3.11 Agenda of every congress shall be announced six weeks earlier.
3.12 The decisions of the Congress shall be binding for all the association bodies and its members.
Article 4: Central Committee
4.1 Central Committee shall be the supreme body of the association in the periods between congresses.
4.2 Central Committee shall be elected by all the members for a term of two years.
4.3 Titles and roles of the office bearers of the Central Committee shall be as follows:
4.3.1 President: The president shall chair all the Central Committee meetings.
4.3.2 Vice President: The vice president shall act as president in the absence of president regarding meetings.
4.3.3 Vice President Women: The vice president women shall chair the Congress and all university conference and organize all the women community.
4.3.4 Vice President Faculties: The vice president faculties shall coordinate with all the Faculty Secretaries, shall bridge the congress and faculty committee, central and faculty committee, and shall represent them in their absence.
4.3.5 Vice President Campuses: The vice president campuses shall coordinate with all the Campus Secretaries, shall bridge the congress and campus committee, central and campus committee, and shall represent them in their absence.
4.3.6 General Secretary: The general secretary shall record and publish all the proceedings of the Congress, Conference and Meetings and shall produce all the internal and external official correspondence of the association.
4.3.7 Membership Secretary: The membership secretary shall document the contributions of the individual members towards the association and the teaching community in general, shall act to achieve the ambitious target of one hundred percent membership.
4.3.8 Information Secretary: The information secretary shall be responsible for circulation of all official announcements on all the mediums, shall maintain the membership directory to broadcast. The information secretary shall appoint the editorial staff of the association’s central organ (online bilingual paper or blog).
4.3.9 Treasurer: The treasurer shall be responsible for the collection of membership fee. The treasurer shall estimate the budget required for the congress, action, agitation and meeting. The treasurer shall present the annual account statement to the Congress.
4.4 All the faculty and campus secretaries shall be the members of Central Committee or delegate their voting power and representation to respective vice presidents.
4.5 Central Committee shall be the leading core, political and organizing center of the association. Major political and organizational questions shall be discussed in the Central Committee. Central Committee shall distribute the association’s forces and funds, shall direct the work of the whole association.
Article 5: Idealogue
5.1 The Idealogue shall be an ideological and dissolvable organ, which councils the Central Committee.
5.2 The Idealogue shall consist of the founding members of the association who share the same vision for the association growth. They have all other rights as members.
5.3 The Idealogue shall carefully monitor all the nominations to issue an immediate and appropriate advisory in order to block opportunists running for an association office.
5.4 The Idealogue’s advisory shall not be binding for the Central Committee.
5.5 Every fifth Congress shall decide whether to continue this organ for another five years or dissolve.
Article 6: Faculty Committee
6.1 Faculty Committee shall be a lower body of the association.
6.2 Faculty Committee shall be elected by the respective members for a term of two years.
6.3 Title and role of the office bearers of the Faculty Committee shall be as follows:
6.3.1 Faculty Secretary: The faculty secretary shall chair and document all the meetings of the Faculty Committee and shall represent the faculty in the Central Committee.
6.4 All the departmental secretaries shall be the members of Faculty Committee.
6.5 The faculty committee shall be responsible to resolve faculty level issues of the community independently.
Article 7: Campus Committee
7.1 Campus Committee shall be a lower body of the association.
7.2 Campus Committee shall be elected by the respective members for a term of two years.
7.3 Title and role of the office bearers of the Campus Committee shall be as follows:
7.3.1 Campus Secretary: The campus secretary shall chair and document all the meetings of the Campus Committee and shall represent the campus in the Central Committee.
7.4 All the departmental secretaries shall be the members of Campus Committee.
7.5 The campus committee shall be responsible to resolve campus level issues of the community independently.
Article 8: Departmental Committee
8.1 Departmental Committee shall be the primary body of the association, which constitute the basis of the association.
8.2 Departmental Committee shall be elected by the respective members for a term of two years.
8.3 Minimum three members are required to form a departmental committee.
8.4 Title and role of the office bearers of the Faculty Committee shall be as follows:
8.4.1 Departmental Secretary: The departmental secretary shall chair and document all the meetings of the Departmental Committee and shall represent the department in the Faculty or Campus Committee.
8.5 All the association members of that department shall be the members of the Departmental Committee.
8.6 Departmental committee shall be responsible to resolve department level issues of the community independently.
8.7 Departmental committee shall be responsible for the organizational work, recruiting new members, rallying the non-members, explaining the association policy to the non-members.
8.8 Departmental committee shall combat laxity and mismanagement in department and faculty, and constantly see to the improvement of the workplace culture and living conditions of the faculty members.
Article 9: Membership
9.1 All the full time teaching workers, as defined by the Congress of the association, shall be eligible to become members.
9.2 Association shall not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, language, caste, religion, sect, gender, disability, age, medical condition, ancestry and marital status.
9.3 Every member shall pay a monthly membership fee as laid down by the Congress. In case of a failure to deposit the monthly membership fee, member’s name shall be removed from the association rolls.
9.4 The fund collected as membership fee shall be utilized for association activity and running expenditures. The office bearers of the association shall work voluntarily without any honorarium or travelling expense.
9.5 All members shall submit a membership form, manually or electronically.
9.6 Every member shall take the association pledge.
“I accept the program of the association and agree to abide by its constitution and loyally to carry out decisions of the association. I shall strive to live up to the ideals of collectivism and shall selflessly serve the teaching workers of the university, always placing the interests of the association and the community above personal interests.”
Article 10: Member’s Rights
10.1 Every member shall take part in the free and businesslike discussion at meetings, conferences and congress, of practical questions concerning association policy.
10.2 Every member shall have the right to criticize at association meetings any association office bearer.
10.3 Every member shall have the right to take part in the election of, and to be elected to association bodies.
10.4 Every member shall have the right to demand that one oneself take part in the discussion of every decision concerning his own activities.
10.5 Every member shall have the right to submit any question or statement one desires to any association body, up to and including the Central Committee.
10.6 Every member shall have the right to inquire about the association funds through respective Departmental Committee.
Article 11: Membership Withdrawal
11.1 Every member shall have the right to withdraw membership. The resignation shall be submitted to the concerned departmental committee. The departmental committee concerned may accept the same, decide to strike member’s name off the rolls and report to the matter to the next higher body.
11.2 Every withdrawing member shall be liable to be charged with serious violation of association rules or discipline that may warrant their expulsion and where such a charge is substantial, the withdrawal may be given effect to as expulsion from the association. All such cases of withdrawal given effect, as expulsion shall be immediately reported to the Central Committee and subject to the latter’s confirmation.
Article 12: Nominations and Elections
12.1 Elections shall be held every two years.
12.1.1 The call for nominations shall be published on the first Monday of the Fall semester of that academic year.
12.1.2 The list of accepted nominations shall be published on the second Monday of the Fall semester of that academic year.
12.1.3 The elections shall be held on any suitable day of the third week of the Fall semester of that academic year.
12.2 All members shall be eligible for nomination for all the offices of all the bodies except the Vice President Women of the Central Committee which is reserved only for a woman member.
12.3 Association being the advocate of the conflict of interests between teaching workers and the administration, shall discourage the members with university administrative role for submitting nominations. The definition of the administrative role or administration shall be laid down by the Congress of the association.
12.4 Every office bearer shall resign from his office before accepting any administrative role in the university. Resigning office bearer due to conflict of interests shall continue to be a member of the association and shall not forget member’s duties towards association and fellow teaching workers.
12.5 Congress before the election time should appoint a committee to conduct the upcoming elections or delegate this power to the outgoing Central Committee.
Article 13: Conference or All University Conference
13.1 In the intervals between congresses, the Central Committee shall convene All University Conference to discuss urgent questions of association policy.
13.2 Conference shall have 34% of its members present to be valid.
13.3 All University Conference shall have the right to replace some of the members of any association body, to remove those who have failed to carry out their duties and to elect others in their place. Such a change must not, however, affect more than one fifth of the total number of members of that body that was initially elected by the general elections.
13.4 The decisions of All University Conference shall be endorsed by the Central Committee, except for decisions to replace members of the Central Committee and to elect new alternate members; such decisions do not have to be endorsed by the Central Committee.
13.5 The decisions of All University Conference endorsed by the Central Committee shall be binding for all the association bodies and its members.
Article 14: Democratic Centralism
14.1 The guiding principle in the association’s organizational structure shall be democratic centralism.
14.2 All association bodies, from bottom up, shall be elected.
14.3 The lower association bodies shall report periodically to their higher association bodies.
14.4 Strict association discipline and subordination of the minority to the majority shall be observed in the all the bodies.
14.5 The decisions of the higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on the lower bodies.