Fearing 'Go Nawaz Go', KU shuts down campus for laptop distribution ceremony

The university will remain closed on Tuesday for academic and examination activities

KARACHI: Fearing a backlash from political rivals of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, the Karachi University (KU) has decided to close its campus and suspend all examinations and academic activities on Tuesday as laptops are scheduled to be distributed among the students under the Prime Minister’s “National Programme for the Provision of Laptops.”

Special adviser to Prime Minister Marvi Memon is set to preside over the distribution ceremony that will be held at the university’s Arts Auditorium at 2pm. However, in light of the situation, the university has decided to close its doors for thousands of students since Tuesday morning.

The KU administration has invited a select group of 171 students to receive the laptops from over 3,500 recipients whose names had been finalised by the Higher Education Commission on behalf of the Prime Minister’s secretariat.

On Monday evening, Separate notifications to close down the university as well as to defer the scheduled exams on the day were issued by the KU administration.

A senior university official told The Express Tribune that the step has been taken keeping in view existing political environment in the wake of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) sit-in in Islamabad.

“The vice chancellor had agreed to suspend the academic activities in order to mitigate the risk of any untoward incident during the ceremony,” said the university security official who requested not to be named.