Teacher safety: Police pickets to be set up in Punjab University

Academic Staff Association calls off boycott of classes.

LAHORE:

The Punjab University Academic Staff Association (ASA) called off its strike on Wednesday after the Punjab government accepted its demand for a police picket at the New Campus.

The ASA General Body met at the Chemistry Department and took the decision to call off the strike in view of the Punjab government’s willingness to set up a police picket at the Punjab University campus for three months.

The ASA had called the strike on May 17 after several teachers were allegedly ill-treated by activists of the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), who were protesting at the murder of IJT member Awais Aqeel in a drive-by shooting by gunmen on motorbikes.

The Punjab government has also accepted the Academic Staff Association’s demand to conduct an operation against illegal occupants of the PU hostels on the basis of information provided by the university administration, ASA office bearers said at the meeting.

One of the meeting’s participants suggested that PU guards be given the same powers as the police so they could crack down on “miscreants” on campus.

The ASA decided to forward the proposal to the government.

Members also demanded that action be taken against plagiarists in the PU, a participant of the meeting said.

ASA President Amir Sarwar confirmed that the strike had been called off as the government had accepted the teachers’ demands.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2012.