Around 400 people began their protest in the morning against the grant of autonomy to public colleges and the changes likely to accompany this process, such as higher tuition fees,.
The situation escalated when a group of protesters broke past guards at the outer security cordon of the assembly grounds. They got as far as the steps leading to the assembly building.
Police baton-charged the protesters, who responded by throwing stones, smashing windows in two MPAs’ cars, breaking CCTV cameras and destroying furniture used by security officials. Angry students, most of them Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) activists, also set fire to a bus at Nasser Bagh and one in front of the Town Hall. They broke the windows of two others buses and damaged a picket at Charing Cross.
The police arrested some 20 teachers and 10 students. They were detained at Qila Gujjar Singh police station and Race Course police station. Constable Muhammad Shafi and several IJT activists were injured in the clashes.
Traffic on The Mall and side roads was jammed for more than two hours as a result of the disturbance.
The Express Tribune has learnt that seven people including Dr Zahid Ahmad, the president of the Joint Action Committee of Teachers, Prof Iftikhar Hashim, the vice president, Tanveer Shah, the general secretary, Akhtar Nazir, the IJT nazim, and Ahmad Shaheen, the IJT press secretary, met with Opposition Leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin at the Punjab Assembly building.
Prof Arif Habib of Government College Khanewal said that after two hours of protest in the morning in which they were ignored, the delegation had been invited for talks. “They were arrested as they left the building. We were marching towards the Punjab Assembly in protest when the police charged us with batons,” he said.
“Our demand is that the government revoke its decision to set up boards of governors in 26 colleges. This will lead to privatisation and an increase in fees,” Habib said. He also complained about the “inappropriate” English literature course. “I feel embarrassed teaching the course to girls,” he said.
Prof Latif of Emerson College said that the government was to blame for a peaceful protest turning into a violent one. “We have protested twice before in front of the Punjab Assembly and nothing happened then,” he said. He added that unlike the last two protests, this time no member of the Punjab government had heard their grievances. He said IJT men had voluntarily joined the protest.
But Malik Abdul Aziz, the manager of a transport company, said that the IJT students came from MAO College in two buses. He said that these buses were parked diagonally in front of the assembly in order to block The Mall. “They later broke the windows of the buses they came in,” he said. “They also burnt two of my company’s buses.”
A meeting was underway between the superintendent of police (Coordination) and a panel of students and teachers on Tuesday night by the time this report was filed.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2010.
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