Two violent protests on PU campus in a day

Students disrupt seminar speech in protest; clerical staff refuse to process admission forms.

LAHORE: Despite the presence of security personnel, over a dozen students belonging to the Institute of Mycology and Plant Pathology (IMPP) forced their way into the Faisal Auditorium on Friday and chanted slogans against the Punjab University (PU) administration.

Lord Nazir Ahmad, a member of the British Parliament, was then addressing the participants of a seminar.

Security guards were able to push the protesting students out of the auditorium after a struggle of around 20 minutes. However, the security failed once again when the IMPP students surrounded Lord Nazir’s car when he was leaving the campus. They blocked the car’s route. A few students also climbed the car’s bonnet. The students also abused Lord Ahmad, who was rescued by the guards. The protesting students were beaten up by the varsity guards.

One of the students said that they had planned the protest well in advance. Not wishing to be named, he said that the protest was a message to the varsity, which he said was not serious in resolving the students’ issues on a priority basis.

The IMPP students have been protesting for the last seven months. They demand that the IMPP degree should be recognised as an equivalent of an honours degree in agriculture science. The Higher Education Commission has refused to recognise IMPP students as students of agriculture science, making it impossible for them to apply for agriculture jobs. The students say that the administration had told them, at the time of their admissions, that their degree would be equivalent to an agriculture degree.

Around the same time, PU employees protested against the administration for cutting their medical allowance. The protestors delivered speeches and shouted “Go VC go!”, in front of the administration block, against the “corrupt officials” of the university. The clerical staff also refused to process admission forms of a large number of applicants who had came to submit their forms.

The protestors staged the protest under the banner of PU Administrative and Technical Staff Association with president Ghullam Abbas leading the protest.

The staff said that they will not work until the restoration of their medical allowances that according to them was a fundamental right. They said that they will launch a movement against the varsity administration from Monday and claimed that around 8,000 varsity employees will join them in their protest.

The PU registrar, Prof Muhammad Akhtar, said that the IMPP matter had been resolved, adding that it was a shame that the students demonstrated at a time when a foreign dignitary was addressing teachers and students.

The PU Academic Staff Association general secretary, Prof Javed Sami, also condemned the IPP students’ ‘misbehaviour’. Sami said that such misconduct would not be tolerated from any quarter in the future. He said that the IMPP students’ demands had been met and that it was only some outsiders and expelled students that spoilt the varsity’s academic environment.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.