Cost of protesting: SMIU vice-chancellor to sue former student for Rs5m

Group of students had protested against the decision to shut down SMIU college.

KARACHI:

In an astonishing move, the Sindh Madressatul Islam University’s (SMIU) vice-chancellor has issued legal notice to a former student, threatening to file a defamation suit against him if he did not write an unconditional apology and pay Rs5 million in damages, The Express Tribune has learnt.

On August 31, former students of the SMI school and college, clad in their uniforms to show their association with their alma mater, staged a protest demonstration at the Karachi Press Club. It was one of the participants of this protest, Saddam Khan, now an economics student at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, who was issued the notice.



Complaining about the SMIU VC, Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh’s decision to shut down the SMI college, the protesting students raised their fists to “safeguard the historical institution of learning where the nation’s founding father, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had received his education.” They claimed that the actual site, within the school premises, where the Quaid-e-Azam had attended classes had been turned into bathrooms for the university.

“After the passing out of the last batch in March this year, the SMIU administration has refused further admissions to the SMI college. The place that was being used for college classes has now been taken up by the university,” Saddam Khan told The Express Tribune.

The protesting alumni of the college termed this move “illegal” and in violation of the SMIU Act of 2011 as they alleged that the SMIU administration did not go through the proper channel for its approval. They cited Section 47 (1) of the Act which states that the university shall continue to impart education from grades I to XII in accordance with its historical tradition till the authorities of the university alter, modify or abolish the programme.

Through his counsel, Dr Shaikh, however, had termed the allegations published as news reports of the protest in newspapers of September 1, 2013 as “defamatory and derogatory.”

“You have interpreted the law at your own whim without understanding its spirit,” said Dr Shaikh to the recipient of the legal notice.

Dr Shaikh’s counsel further stated that the instance of defamation against her client had lowered his esteem and reputation in public and caused significant losses. “The losses accrued to my client could not be compensated in money but, in accordance with the law of the land, you are liable to pay the compensation,” said the counsel, Advocate Farah Naz Kazi.

Among all the protesting alumni, Saddam Khan now faces a 14-day deadline, from the day of receipt of the legal notice, to either pay Rs5 million to the SMIU VC along with his “full and unqualified apology” or get sued in “criminal as well as civil litigation” before the court of law.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2013.