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PU crackdown on IJT: Politics free campus
Crackdown on IJT men for harassing PU students
Lahore, Feb 06, 2008: The Punjab University (PU)
administration on Tuesday night started a crackdown on the Islami Jamiat Talaba
(IJT) activists and expelled students, after receiving complaints against them
about harassing students and officials.
The PU Hall Council officials
raided Hostel 4 on the New Campus and locked the rooms of four PU IJT activists.
"The crackdown started after the students complained about the IJT activists
harassing them," PU spokesman Dr Mujahid Mansoori said, adding that the
crackdown would go on.
Earlier, a report was received that the IJT
activists, carrying guns, threatened hostel 4 guards on Monday. The IJT
activists also warned the guards not to interfere in their affairs.
The
PU official said the IJT activists had also harassed the hostel warden for
bearing a strict attitude towards them.
Dr Mansoori said two of those
activists were 'illegal students' and two had been expelled from the university.
Those activists had been pressing the hostel officials to show 'leniency'
towards them, he added.
He said the PU administration would continue the
operation against such elements and would also register an FIR (first
information report) in the police station concerned, in case the activists
continued harassing the students and officials. The university administration,
till the filing of this report, was present in the hostel and had put the
security on high alert to thwart any untoward incident in reaction to the
crackdown against the IJT activists.
PU mulls policy to oust politics from campuses
Lahore: The administration of the Punjab University (PU) is considering implementing a
policy to eliminate all sorts of political groups, including Islami Jamiat
Talaba (IJT), from the university.
The IJT, the youth wing of
Jamaat-e-Islami, is the strongest political organisation working in the PU. Two
months ago, several hundred PU students protested against the IJT's strong hold
on the university, especially after its activists manhandled Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. The IJT activists beat up many of the
protesters and even some teachers. The IJT has been in the university for many
decades and has a strong hold on the university, especially because many of the
teachers and staff members were IJT members in their student days.
Imran
Khan's manhandling by the IJT caused an uproar among the PU students and many of
them joined the PTI youth wing, Insaf Students' Federation. The university is
concerned about the increasing political activity on its campuses and has taken
steps to control it. The policy is one of these steps.
PU spokesman Dr
Mujahid Mansoori said the purpose of the new policy aimed at depoliticising the
university campuses and to direct the students' attention towards healthy
extra-curricular activities. He said the new policy would be given to the PU
Chairmen and Deans' Committee soon. The committee would discuss the policy and
distribute it to all the departments' deans, heads and hostel wardens to enforce
in their departments. Dr Mansoori said the policy also aimed at bridging the gap
between students and teachers. He said the university had planned several
programmes for the teachers and students.
A PU teacher said the
university was taking steps to control the IJT. He said the IJT was causing
problems in the university. He said the administration was planning to put a ban
on IJT programmes in PU hostels. He said the IJT held Dars-e-Quran at PU hostels
regularly, but did not let anyone else organise such programmes. He said the PU
promoted freedom of speech and equal opportunities for all students. He said the
administration was planning to organise a Dars-e-Quran instead of letting the
IJT handle it.
PU Registrar Dr Naeem Ahmed Khan said the administration
was working to facilitate the students and was trying to create an environment
in which the students, teachers and administration would cooperate with each
other. He said the new policy would promote research. Dr Khan said, "Improving
the quality of education is our priority."
PU IJT Media Secretary Rehan
Tariq said the IJT was working in the PU for 50 years. He said he did not know
about any new policy. He said the IJT would decide on its strategy regarding the
policy after the selection of a new PU IJT nazim as the former PU IJT nazim
Attiqur Rehman had been selected as IJT's nazim-e-ala for Pakistan. Daily Times
PU teachers to protest Model University Ordinance tomorrow
Lahore: The Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) will hold
a protest demonstration against promulgation of Model University Ordinance (MUO)
in public sector universities and alleged illegal policies of the Higher
Education Commission, on February 7 at New Campus.
PUASA will also set up
a protest camp in this regard. The demonstration and protest camp will start at
10 am and will continue till 1:30 pm near Faisal Auditorium at PU Institute of
Education and Research (IER).
PUASA president Dr Mumtaz Ahmad Salik said that the association favours democratic governance of the public sector
universities. The body had already condemned the implementation of MUO in 2002
but the HEC was resurrecting a dead issue once again, he added.
"HEC is
trying to implement this controversial ordinance in Peshawar University now,
which is against the wishes of teachers and students," he said. He added,
"Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA)
has decided to oppose the move since it was not in favour of stakeholders."
"PUASA opposes turning of universities into corporate bodies in which
the stakeholders (teachers and students) will have no say in policy-making and
the chancellor/ vice chancellors will enjoy unbridled administrative powers," he
added. He further said PUASA believed that educational reforms have to come from
within the universities as provided in the acts passed by the respective
assemblies and not from the HEC. "PUASA trusts the collective wisdom within the
universities for reforms and not individual discretion who devise policies of
higher education and compel the chancellors/governors to implement the same in
public sector universities," he said.
He claimed that FAPUASA
representatives had several meetings with HEC authorities and agreed upon
several things, which HEC failed to notify.
"We once again request to
notify agreed upon issues/problems as soon as possible and save the teachers'
time for academic activities," he added
"PUASA will appreciate if the
proposed Model University Ordinance is withheld for the time being and the
elected government is let to decide the issue. Public sector universities are
being run on public money; it is, therefore, the right of the public to exercise
the right of making laws for the universities through their representatives," he
said.
BISE chairman appointed
Lahore: Punjab Education Department has appointed Muhammad Akram Chaudhry, former additional
secretary (Academic) as chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary
Education (BISE), Gujranwala. Akram Chaudhry has also served as additional
secretary (Planning), controller of examinations of BISE, Lahore and Bahawalpur
and as executive district officer (Education), Lahore. The News
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| Education News | | Updated: 09 Feb, 2012 |
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