Prof Channar’s murder: SU reinstates 15 out of 18 students nominated in case

Three students, who were implicated in the murder by a judicial inquiry, remain suspended.

HYDERABAD: Sindh University has reinstated 15 out of the 18 students expelled in December 2011 for violence despite protests from students and faculty.

All 18 students were named in a police case registered by the university at the Jamshoro police station for the murder of Prof Bashir Channar.

Channar, who was the SU student affairs director, was gunned down on campus on January 2, 2012. Following his murder, the teacher and university associations boycotted work for more than a month.

Qurban Ali Mahar, Meenhal Rajjar and Hamza Ali Chandio are the three students who have not been taken back since they were implicated in Channar’s murder by a judicial inquiry.

The Jamshoro police confirmed that the 15 students are still named in the case filed on January 6 on the complaint of Nizamuddin Halepoto, the former director of student affairs.

“The disciplinary committee rusticated the students and it is the same committee, though with different members, who restored them,” said registrar Ghaffar Ali Shah, adding that the committee reviewed the restoration for over a month before taking the decision.

The registrar declined to confirm or deny whether the students who were reinstated were still nominated in the FIR.

The committee, chaired by the dean of pharmacy, Dr Abdullah Dayo, comprised Naeem Tariq Narejo, Khalil Noor Panhwar, Prof Sarfaraz Solangi and Ahmed Ali Shaikh.

“We have been complaining since the day they were rusticated that the proper process was not followed,” complained the SU teachers association’s general secretary, Arfanna Mallah. “Their reinstatement also took place in haste without following the rules.”

The teachers association called off its token strike this month, saying that it would resume the strike if the “violation of rules” continued.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2012.