Tussle ends: Academic activities resume at National Textile University

The students were expelled on March 26 for disrupting academic activities.


Shamsul Islam April 01, 2015
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FAISALABAD:


Academic activities at the National Textile University (NTU) resumed after three days of a students’ protest came to an end with the university administration rescheduling examinations for April 6 and promising to review the expulsion of 12 students.


The students were expelled on March 26 for disrupting academic activities and for creating a law and order situation.

The university had also stopped them from taking examinations scheduled to commence from Tuesday (March 31). They were also barred access to university hostels.

Muhammad Tauqeer Butt, Ali Khursheed, Muhammad Tauseef, Muhammad Luqman, Muhammad Nauman, Sameer Ali, Shehar Yar, Shazil Saleem, Slaman Ali, Muhammad Saad, Usman Ayyub and Aftab Orakzai and scores of other students had staged protest demonstration for three days at the campus. On Tuesday, they had blocked the road near the campus and suspended traffic on Faisalabad-Sheikhupura Road.

The commissioner had met the protesting students on Tuesday evening and after hearing their complaints and demands, assured them that the university would be asked to review its decision. He had said that they would also be allowed to stay at the hostel.

The students had then called off their protest and dispersed.

Talking to newsmen, Nasir Ali, one of the students, had said the 12 final year students had been expelled without justification.

“We asked the university administration to review its decision and allow them to stay at the hostel during this period,” he said. “Around midnight on March 26, some policemen and administration staff asked the students to leave.”

He said NTU had arranged the third International Conference on Value-Addition and Innovation in Textiles (COVITEX-2015) but university students were not allowed to attend the conference. He said students had protested about the issue and had been expelled for voicing dissent.

NTU Registrar Muhammad Ashfaq said, “There are at least 150 students illegally residing in the hostel,” he said.

He said they were warned several times to register for a room or vacate the hostel.

“When we gave them a final warning, these students boycotted their own classes and disrupted academic activities on the entire campus first on March 13 and later on March 19.”

“The conference, which many foreign delegates were attending, had been arranged for March 27-28 and these students threatened to sabotage it as well.”

He said these students and their friends had blocked Faisalabad-Sheikhupura Road on March 30-31, disrupting plans for semester exams.

He said allotments for rooms would be made as per rules at the beginning of next semester after which no student will be allowed to stay in the hostel without proper paperwork. He said their expulsion had not been withdrawn and their appeals would be review by the appellant committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2015. 

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