Who did it?: DCET’s admissions on hold as 35 admit cards had no matches

Students protested outside and chanted slogans against the principal.

KARACHI: There was no way to enter the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology (DCET) on Wednesday. The university was forced to shut down as the road adjacent to it, the new MA Jinnah Road, was blocked by hundreds of students staging a protest.

The students boycotted their examinations and took to the streets because they thought that there was something suspicious about the university’s admissions process. The protest resulted in a massive traffic jam that congested the flow for hours.

On February 26, the Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) conducted an entry test for 1,577 candidates applying to DCET under the supervision of MAJU’s vice chancellor Dr Abdul Wahab. On March 3, Dr Wahab announced that the pictures on 35 admit cards did not match the students domicile and permanent residence certificate. According to DCET’s admissions director engineer Abdul Waheed Bhutto, the university withheld the results of 35 candidates on Dr Wahab’s suggestion. While talking to The Express Tribune, Bhutto said that the students were under the misconception that the committee had only scrutinized admission forms of applicants from rural Sindh. “The students have demanded that all application forms should be scrutinised before the university sets up interviews with successful candidates,” he said. “The interviews were scheduled to be held on March 19. The admissions committee has accepted the students demand for complete verification including a judicial investigation.” He added that they had verified all forms and it was true that the unmatched application forms were mostly from rural Sindh.

Bhutto insisted that they were going to go over the admission forms before setting up interviews with successful candidates.

Students like Muhammad Idrees, the president of the Students Action Committee are demanding to know who helped forge the documents and applications. “We want to know who helped those 35 candidates sit for the pre-entry test and how,” he said. “We appreciate the efforts made by Dr Wahab but we know that some university official is involved in this case.”

The protestors chanted slogans against DCET’s principal Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh, who was also appointed as the vice chancellor of Sindh Madressatul Islam University. Students claimed that they hadn’t seen him in office for weeks and that it was imperative for him to be there to resolve the issues they faced.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2012.