High-handedness: 7 injured as UoP student protest turns violent

Varsity admin calls riot police to force students out, dismisses protest as reaction to hostel evictions

PESHAWAR: A protest by students at the Peshawar University turned violent on Thursday after the varsity administration called in the police to disperse the protesting crowd. The baton-charge and subsequent scuffles left at least seven students and two policemen injured while 28 students were arrested.

The use of force was condemned by various political parties and non-governmental organisations while the provincial government dismissed the protest the result of a purge against student political groups from the varsity’s hostel.

On the call of United Student’s Alliance (USA) — which is an umbrella body of all political and regional student groups — students of University of Peshawar (UoP) on Thursday staged a peaceful protest in the varsity to protest against the newly imposed fee structure which they claimed would hike fees by 400 per cent for university admission, examination and hostel charges  over 10 years.

The student wings of various parties including the Pashtun Student Federation, the People’s Student Federation, the Islami Jamiat Taliba and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) student wing along with various regional parties participated in the protest and chanted slogans against the varsity administration’s move.

The university administration, USA leader Riaz Khan explained, had more than quadrupled hostel fees from Rs8,000 per year to a whopping Rs36,000 per annum. Moreover, admission fees for the pharmacy department had crossed the Rs100,000 mark.

The varsity administration, though, rejected the claims made by students of fee hikes and corruption. Instead of placating the students and addressing their concerns, the varsity administration imposed Section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code and called in the police to disperse students from the varsity’s administration block.

“We were staging a peaceful protest in front of the administration block demanding our rights, but the university administration imposed Section 144 and used force against peaceful students,” said student leader Asfandyar Khan. “We reject the new fee structure as this model will keep the poor students away from gaining higher education,” he added.

Meanwhile, UoP Media Officer Ali Imran Bangash termed the demands of the students as superficial and claimed that the university increases fees by only 10 per cent every year as per the rules.

He added that the real issue which the student groups were protesting against was the expulsion of various student wings of political parties from the varsity’s hostels.

“We conducted a cleanup operation to clear hostel rooms of student group office bearers, who numbered in the hundreds. Today’s protest was a reaction to that,” Ali stated, adding defiantly,  "We will never bow to pressure tactics."

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial government spokesperson Shaukat Yousafzai, while expressing displeasure over the use of force by university administration, largely backed the version of the varsity spokesperson.

“The university syndicate has not increased fees for over two years, and the university administration knew the procedure for dealing with the affairs of the campus,” Yousafzai stated matter-of-factly.

“Over 400 rooms were occupied by outsiders and student wings of political parties. We would like to create an educational environment in the university,” the provincial spokesperson stated.

Use of force condemned

Different political parties, though, condemned the use of force against a peaceful protest by students in UoP and demand that the varsity administration withdraw their decision of raising fees.

Senior Awami National Party (ANP) leader Iftikhar Hussain said that the use of force against students had reminded him of the days when martial law was in effect in the country.

He reminded that the last democratic government helmed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had tolerated a massive protest by PTI for 120 days, while the so-called democratic PTI could not even digest a small, peaceful protest by student unions.

Separately, Pashtun Think Tank Chairman Syed Akhtar Ali Shah condemned the brutal baton-charge and tear gas shelling against students.

He said that the right to assembly and expression were guaranteed under the constitution. Deploring the action, he said that such cruelty was not even witnessed during the martial law.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2018.