Committee probing Oct 4 Peshawar University incident submits report to CM

Students, senior academicians deem report partisan, contradictory

The parliamentary committee for probing the October, 4 Peshawar University incident has submitted their report to the chief minister amid students, senior academics and administration terming the report ‘partisan’.

The report pinned responsibility on the police for use of force against unarmed students on campus. Despite that, the committee recommended that the police set up inside the campus should be enhanced — which remains a contradiction.

A senior member of the finance department said that "the committee has recommended the enhancement in the police setup while knowing the fact that campus is already going through a financial crunch".

The report further demanded the removal of provost from office. The committee, however, seems to have overlooked that provost isn't in-charge of administration, but hostels.

However, the committee has lauded the provost in playing a role in getting rooms vacated by illegal occupants.

The report also maintained that junior officers are working on the senior posts, but didn't point out that position of a 20-grade officer is vacant and the appointment is pending due to delay from governor's office.

On encroachments, the report failed to address that the provincial government had promised to pay for acquiring the campus. But the process is still pending.

The committee didn't address the fee hike. Students at the UOP have lodged protests on the issue but the committee remained silent on the syndicate and Senate's decision to bump university fee by 10 per cent annually.

On October 4, seven students of the university and two police personnel were injured while 28 students were arrested in protests against the mounting fee charged by the university administration over a period of ten years. According to the student organisations, the university administration had been charging admission, examination and hostel charges which have increased to over 400 per cent in the last decade. The university administration, on the other hand, rejected the claims of the fee increase and corruption charges against the administration.