Raising concerns: Agriculture University students complain of hostile behaviour

Say administration’s daily checks of hostel rooms cause inconvenience and distress.

PESHAWAR: Students of University of Agriculture have accused the varsity’s administration of hostile behaviour towards students residing in the hostel and demanded the higher education minister intervene.

Sajjad Ahmad, a student, told The Express Tribune on Wednesday that various entry and exit points of the varsity have been sealed off, adding the institution is beginning to look like a prison.



“Moreover, the management’s behaviour towards students in hostels is nothing short of hostile which is causing distress,” said Ahmad. According to him, hostel rooms are checked every day for no apparent reason, causing inconvenience to students and affecting their studies.

Another student, Wajid Ali said midterm exams will begin on November 17 and students were already lagging behind due to the disturbance at the university over the past few weeks.

“To make matters worse, the hostel management is disturbing us in our rooms every day with these checks and our studying process is affected,” said Ali.

The student urged the higher education minister and vice chancellor to resolve the issue and take strict action against students involved in on-campus violence.

The University of Agriculture reopened on November 10 after being closed for nearly three weeks following an armed clash among two student groups which claimed one life. Eleven students have been rusticated for being involved in the incident.

Deweaponising varsities

Meanwhile, presiding over a high-level meeting of vice chancellors on Wednesday, Minister for Higher Education Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said an operation would be initiated soon to rid Peshawar’s public sector universities of arms and ammunition.

Ghani said CCTV cameras would be installed at four public universities of the provincial capital to monitor their activities and respond swiftly in case of any untoward incident.

It was decided in the meeting that if students want to organise any event on the university’s premises, they would be required to take permission from the vice chancellor.

In case an invited chief guest does not belong to the varsity, students would be required to obtain written permission.

The formation of a Student Grievances Committee was deliberated to address student issues.

The vice chancellors of University of Peshawar, University of Agriculture, University of Engineering and Technology and Islamia College University were present at the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2014.