Two more teachers transferred

Involvement in ‘anti-state activities’ alleged

LAHORE: The Punjab government has transferred two more faculty members of the Islamia College Civil Lines (ICCL), after the college principal, Prof Rao Jalil Ahmad, was transferred on similar charges of involvement in anti-state activities, three days ago.

Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) representatives however said that the teachers of Islamia College Civil Lines are being penalised for leading the protest against the constitution of board of governors and the BS honors programme at 26 colleges of Punjab. ICCL Political Science department’s Assistant Professor Hanif Abbassi and the Crescent Hostel Warden Abdul Rashid were transferred to Dera Ghazi Khan Wednesday night. They said that the notification had reached the college but they had not yet received it.

Rashid said that it was the Islami Jammiat Tulaba (IJT) activists who protested, and they could not stop them. “This is just a pretext to stop our protests. The government should listen to our complaints instead of transferring teachers on the name of anti-state activities,” he added. Abbassi said that they were being punished for raising voice against the Punjab government.  “We cannot shift to the last corner of Punjab with our families. We should have given some warning or intimation before the transfer,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2010.