LAHORE:
As many as 300 students of the National College of Arts (NCA) staged a protest on Monday in support of four senior faculty members of the Departments of Architecture and Fine Arts.
The protest, led by the Architecture Department, was held after the contracts of Architecture Department’s assistant professors Arfan Ghani and Syed Aqeel Kazmi and Fine Arts associate professors Laila Rahman and Maryam Hussian expired on Monday. The teachers said their contracts had been ‘terminated’ by the principal for personal reasons. The principal said the college Board of Governors (BoG) had decided not to extend their contracts and he had nothing to do with the decision.
Students protest on campus
The protesters, largely peaceful, blocked the main entrance of the college in order to prevent the resumption of classes. They held placards demanding the removal of the Acting Principal Bashir Ahmed.
Bashir Chaudhry, a final year Architecture student, said that the teachers were very good and very popular among the students. “The college has lost some great teachers today and we are not just going to sit and mourn the loss,” he said.
As a continuation of the protest, faculty members, including those whose contracts had been terminated, held a press conference at the Press Club on Monday. The teachers demanded the immediate removal of the officiating principal and expressed reservations over his appointment. They said that the termination orders were ‘illegal’ and demanded that the teachers be reinstated. A protest letter, signed by 35 teachers, was also presented at the press briefing.
Ghani challenged the authenticity of the contract termination letters saying that the executive committee of the BoG denied making any such decision. He said that the competent authority, the Board of Governors in this case, had been by-passed ‘illegally.’
He said that Ahmed had ‘undermined the integrity of the procedure.’
He said that the teachers had not pressured or advised the students to hold a protest, adding that it was a decision taken without any influence from any of the teachers.
Associate Prof Laila Rehman of the Fine Arts Department said that Ahmed’s appointment was against the rules as he was preferred over candidates who were more senior and had better credentials.
Principal’s stance
Ahmed, who took charge as the officiating principal in July 2011 and is also the Head of the Fine Arts Department, told The Express Tribune that the BoG had denied an extension of contracts for the teachers in question. He said that he had no authority to extend or terminate contracts without the approval of the BoG. He denied rumours of a personal grudge against the affected teachers saying that he had no enmity with any of them.
He accused the teachers of using the students for their personal agendas, hurting both the students and the reputation of the institution. He said that the teachers were called to a meeting on Monday morning to discuss the matters, but they refused to attend.
An NCA staff member, seeking anonymity, told The Tribune that the terms of all four teachers had expired and it was beyond the principal’s control to extend them on his own. “The matter had been referred to Executive Council Chairman Mian Ijazul Hasan, who couldn’t proceed on the matter as he is in the USA. So the matter was sent to the Board of Governors, which decided not to extend the contracts,” he said.
Ghani, however, said the case had not been considered by the board. He said that the case was only discussed in the Executive Council meeting, where no such decision to termination was taken.
The students have vowed to continue the protests till their demands are met. The faculty also announced a complete boycott of classes till the administration meets their demands. The college had re-opened on Monday after the Punjab government’s call for closure for fumigation of all educational institutes.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2011.
COMMENTS (9)
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And these corrupt students have also successfully sought an approval for a student guild/ Union. now they will be bullying around both faculty And students. they will favor their facourite juniors mostly hostelites for i know them personally. and this politics disquised as revolution will now never end, only grow. if they manufacture this mao-type solely political establishment, nca will only be going downhill from this point on.
Agree with this guy 'Sachai' above. "All the lousy good-for-nothing students searching for attention were a part of this nonsense". Under the name of One man only, Arfan Ghani, who is a dedicated teacher and an honest man, these students forced their juniors, insulted staff members publically and commited every illegality to achieve what they claimed was right. these good-for-nothing students have all of a sudden become heroes of their juniors. whereas those who have seen them for years know how corrupt they are themselves. Having said that, yes there were some bad things going on in the principle lobby as well. they did kick out teachers out of personal grudge. But it should have been settled in a court and not at campus auditorium. bieng a witness there i can tell what an embaracing moment it was for everyone. and the worst part, most corrupt student groups and desperate individuals were performing this prophecy act. Truth is no other teacher deserves to be reinstated except arfan ghani and he was the only one who said 'maybe bashir sahab (principle) couldnt come because of genuine reasons'. everyone was just using everyone else.
This is really strange. Faculty is more focused on getting their future seats reserved rather than paying attention to the young and upcoming artists. Such a loss we had already by losing great teachers in past 3, 4 years. A wise step needs to be taken here. NCA is a name and it will be a shame for every one associated with this institute if it loses its repute just because of few nutheads fighting with eachother on personal issues. We do not need such authorities to lead the institution but yes people like Salima Hashmi who actually raised this institution to a level without any politics involved. Please Faculty members, STOP defaming our land from where we started our journey and raised our identities!!
The other day I saw ads for Jobs as lecturers and proffesors in a newspaper for NCA.
this is such a waste of time of progressive students/faculty. The students protesting do not understand the administrative rules/politics they should focus on progressive studies rather than gossip mongering and trouble making.. All the lousy good-for-nothing students searching for attention were a part of this nonsense.! the ones who have always been associated with trouble and tantrums grow up guys!
well its a very simple trick here, we shoud see on the both hand, i think both hands (principle and the expelled teachers) are playing games against each other, if these teacher has point then the should contact the Court, design of student can be determined by the Student evaluation forms, which are filled and submitted by the student last year, and then principle should ( in position ) take action and he should keep and dismiss teacher by following student grading. and i think students are very out of focus here, they have not any strong or sensible demand.
Kudos to the student body for showing a backbone and political awareness... qualities which have been systematically subdued by the administration of NCA since the 90's. Step Up, Speak Loud and Support the Truth! There are thousands more with you. Tulibaah Zindabaad!
NCA is a federal government institution. Government rules do not permit the staff and principal to discuss establishment matters in the public without the approval of the competent authority. Both the parties are liable to disciplinary action as per rules. The Board of Governors must rise up to salvage this scenario which can turn ugly and can bring bad name to the institution.
I strongly condemn this violation of rules which can be stated as the 'Islamization' of NCA. The acting principal has traditionally been a conservative minded person since ever. Interestingly, all the teachers who have been forcefully removed from the college faculty - including Mr. Ghani, Mr Kazmi, Ms. Shireen Pasha and Mr. Sarwat Ali - were the most progressive, and openly left-inclined academics of the institution. Mr. Bashir Ahmed's pro-Jamiat acts should be condemned openly and without any hesitation by all the current and former students of the institution.