University of Education: Lawmakers to address students’ issues

Police baton charge hundreds of protesting students, arrest 32 before releasing them.

LAHORE: Police baton-charged hundreds of protesting students of the University of Education at Akbar Chowk and arrested 32, before releasing them on Wednesday evening after student representatives negotiated with Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

The students began their protest on Monday after acting vice chancellor Farhat Saleem sacked two popular professors, Dr Anwarul Rehman Pasha and his wife Dr Shaheen Pasha. They boycotted their exams and gathered outside the vice chancellor’s office shouting slogans.

On Wednesday, the students were baton-charged near the University of Education campus in Township by Sadar Division police as they set out towards the Punjab Assembly. A few hundred managed to get to the assembly on The Mall, where they staged a sit-in for over three hours.

The sit-in ended after negotiations between the students and the law minister.

The Punjab government set up a committee headed by Sanaullah to resolve the issue. The committee, which includes MPAs Rana Arshad and Ahmad Ali Aolakh, directed the secretary of the Higher Education Department, Haseeb Athar, to conduct an inquiry and submit his report to the committee on Thursday.

The student protesters held placards and banners inscribed with slogans such as ‘We don’t recognise VC’s rules’. They alleged that the vice chancellor had threatened to expel students who participated in the protest and promised to reward those who do not with A grades.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th,  2011.