With the movement to save the historical Government Gordon College from probable privatisation completing a month, the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association has announced it will spread the movement throughout the province.
Sources said the students and professors of all government colleges of Punjab will participate in the protest while the movement will be spread across the country in the next phase.
The movement against the probable privatisation of the 122-year-old Government Gordon College was launched by a few pupils and it expanded with every passing day.
On Thursday, the students and professors continued their boycott of the teaching process in the college and took out a protest rally from the college premises to the main road. The protesters blocked the Liaquat Road and chanted slogans for an hour, demanding immediate withdrawal of the privatisation decision.
On the other hand, Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association President Dr Tariq Kaleem said, in a statement, that Gordon College Rawalpindi will never be allowed to be occupied by the land mafia.
“The professors and students from across Punjab are united to protect Gordon College Rawalpindi,” he said. “A daily protest is being held in this regard in Rawalpindi and the scope of this protest will be gradually spread across the country,” he warned.
“The government wants to hand over Gordon College to the American Church and the real situation is that the church to which this institution is being handed over does not exist in Pakistan,” he added.
“The government had also illegally handed over FC College Lahore to the Church of America. The Christian community of Pakistan also wants Gordon College to remain under government custody. By handing over FC College to the Church, poor Christian children couldn't study there,” he claimed.
Dr Kaleem further said that instead of protecting its assets, the government was threatening the protestors with lawsuits and “we have been told clearly that if anyone obstructs the way of privatisation of Gordon College, cases will be instituted against them”.
He alleged that the government did not defend the institution even in court. “The government deliberately lost the case in every court and its counsel did not even bother to ask for the proof of ownership from the second party,” he said and claimed that the Church of America was unable to prove its ownership in the entire case and was winning the case only because the government was not defending the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2022.
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