Hostel hostility: Court stays eviction order of three IIUI students

Legal battle continues between students and management.

ISLAMABAD:

The legal battle between the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) management and three female students landed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday.  

Justice Noorul Haq H Qureshi suspended the eviction order issued by a civil court and granted the students a stay order.

On February 26, an Additional District and Sessions judge (ADSJ) had ordered three female law students to vacate the university hostel within three days.

The ADSJ had declared that IIUI is an autonomous body and it reserves the right regarding allocation of the hostels.

However, Justice Qureshi while accepting their petitions has suspended the civil court order and directed the IIUI administration to submit its reply on March 10.

Neelam Jan, a PhD student, was recovered by a court bailiff on February 22 after she had been allegedly been confined to her hostel room for 16 hours by the hostel management.  Jan and two other students — Romana Khattak and Hiba Shabir — had opposed a new hostel curfew policy and held a protest demonstration, for which they were kicked out of the university hostel.

On Wednesday, while challenging the civil court order, the petitioner’s counsel Sher Afzal Khan maintained that the court had granted a stay order to his clients in December 2013 after the university management had ordered them to vacate the hostel.

He said that the management later detained them illegally for 16 hours and a court bailiff had to recover them.

At the same time, the lower court ordered them to vacate the hostel in three days, which is illegal. He said that university is bound to facilitate the students and instead of facilitating them, the administration unjustly expelled them.

Demanding an FIR

The students have also filed a separate application in the court of ADSJ Shahrukh Arjumand seeking the registration of an FIR against university officials including Director General (DG) Gulzar Khawaja, Security In-charge Colonel (retd) Amjad Zaman, and hostel warden Shaista.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai said the university had expelled all three students. He said the hostel administration had imposed the restrictions for students’ safety and no student was allowed to go out after 8pm. These three students had violated the rules and led a protest, he added.

Yasinzai said that that the administration had traced their addresses but they were found to be forged.

The tussle between the students and the management started in December last year, when the girls held a protest against new rules which dictated that they return to the hostel before Maghrib prayers — around 5pm at that time of the year. On January 4, the IIUI management kicked five students out of the hostels for leading the protest.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.