LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Friday sought a reply from the National College of Arts principal on a petition challenging the removal of a lecturer, allegedly for not passing the daughter of a former college director.
Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khan told the principal to reply in a week. Sohail Zahid Butt, a citizen, filed the petition “in public interest” and submitted that removing a lecturer for not obliging a former director violated Articles 3, 4, 9 and 25 of the Constitution. He prayed that a commission be constituted to probe the matter.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2012.
COMMENTS (10)
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my personal opinion: strict people in our society who enforce rules are always disliked. i dont know who is under discussion here but as a rule anyone who is disliked for being strict/following rules must be someone serious doing something extra. that is why he is disliked generally. i am also sure that serious students like and respect him. this is the norm in our lethargic new generation and our education institutes.
@Haroon Khan:
Young man, Arts schools do not have to be run on whims of people. This is a serious misconception in our society that artists do not have to adhere to any rules, regulations or timings. If this was so, the government and the regulating authorities would not issue long lists of rule books for your arts school. Nor would there be a prospectus that we were give with the admission of my son.
Competence of individuals is more important than being likeable. A bunch of incompetent 'likeables' in any institution only result in the destruction of that institution. Learn to respect rules. Learn to respect competence.
@Shehryar Ali Khan
Dear sir, i believe you are seriously misinformed and have some very unreliable sources of information. i personally know every student at the campus. and believe me, the reputation of the faculty member that you are referring to is quite the opposite. and mind you sir, NCA is an arts school and with all due respect, not the cantonement or a military camp. So please get your facts straight.
My son is a student at NCA Rawlpindi. I have had the 'pleasure' of dealing with the people running the college, including the former director mentioned in the story. All I can say is that my impression of NCA before my son joined, and after dealing with these people has completely changed. For the worse! There is zero professionalism and zero vision. Whatever the director says becomes the rule. This absence of a proper,organised, functioning system has made NCA a very mediocre college and nothing like the reputation it carries in Pakistan. Amongst the students, this removed lecturer is known to be a very competent and dedicated teacher who wanted rules and regulations followed and insisted on fairness and equal treatment of all students irrespective of class or connections. This brought him on a collision course with the college bosses. According to the students, the news of his refusing to give extra favours to the director's daughter is correct. I agree with the lady who wrote above about us being a underdeveloped society and that we should accept it, but we cannot denounce someone for standing up for principles and fair play. I support the lecturer's stance of resisting 'unlawful command' of the boss, as they say in the army.
@Raja Altaf Shigri
I believe most of us dear sir, fail to realize that we are an underdeveloped society. that includes you and me. so either you claim to not be a part of this society or you accept that you are and that this society is far more underdeveloped than you may think. I am an educationist, and i have seen what students and teachers are capable of. what we must realize is that at the end of the day they are human. so yes, being disliked and protests could very well be indicative of a problem and will definitely have respective outcomes. how can you outright deny that? how do professionals or teachers or students become any less human in their emotions and their sentiments whether positive or negative? i agree with mr. Khizar. i also agree that the court should investigate this matter thoroughly.
I beg to differ. what Mr Shigri is implying is a very utopian view of the system. One cant simply rule out the idea of a corrupt judiciary. unfortunately i was misunderstood. i wasnt referring to the corruption of a judicial system, rather its inability and the lack of resources. fair and sqaure my friends is purely idealism, fairness is a social ethic and a moral value and not just a mere quality of a judiciary. the matter is fairly simple and it doesnt need to waste the time of the honourable court. what needs to be done is fairly obvious. the matter should be investigated not by the judiciary, but the ministry (of which unfortunately we have no minister). if not then atleast not at a lawyer to lawer in court level. An educational institution is formed by its students. they are its representatives everywhere. they need to be asked. as far as the system is concerned, theres corruption everywhere. to deny that is foolishness and ignorance. we cant blame an institution for being corrupt.
my point being, the only answer lies within the body of the institution itself, its students. lets see how seriously the honourable court investigates this matter.
@Farah Zaman Khan:
I agree wid u ma'am. nca has been ruled by very corrupt people since many years. students are always last priority. corruption is there for all of us to see. new principal sajad kosar has done nothin except talk and say big words. but no action. i hope high court will question everyone involved. students r suffering.
I would not dismiss the court and its functions the way Mr Khizar is doing. Campus protests or being disliked have nothing to do with unfairness and injustice. It is the courts that must decide what is true and what is not. Campus protests or street hooliganism are hallmarks of an underdeveloped society. If this man is right, with whatever connections he may have, the court will bring it out fairly and squarely. There must be something in his complaint that the court has summoned the Principal and not dismissed the application. If the Principal is right, again, it is the court that will decide, not campus protests, nor anyone's 'sources' as Mr Khizar is claiming.
Ah yes..The honourable court. However the point that we seem to be missing is that the honourable court wont be bothered with what really matters. this is not a matter to be settled in court. Throughout history, men and women who have stood at honourable positions have never stood alone in protest. Why does no one seem to wonder why this man is standing alone? why will no one protest with him? why wont anyone protest for him? Where are the students of the campus? sources have revealed that this man was the most disliked personality on campus. WOW!. that should put a huge question mark on this case shouldnt it? but whos going to go see if thats true right? its just another one of those cases being persued by a man with some connections with the media blah blah blah. Very sad indeed. Incompetance, Nepotism and financial corruption? wait till you see what people have to say about this man.
NCA, once a great Art & Architecture school, has become a hotbed of politics. With one acting Principal after another, NCA has reached new heights in incompetence, nepotism and financial corruption. The Board of Governors are also indifferent. The result? What we read in this story. Someone in the Government ought to take serious notice. I hope the honourable court cleans up this mess.