University of Peshawar Professor beaten by APkSF

Professor beaten up on UoP campus
Peshawar, May 29: Some activists of Tariq Afghan-led Azad Pakhtun Students Federation (APkSF) Friday allegedly beat up and injured a senior professor of the University of Peshawar.

Prof Faqeera Khan Faqri, director, Institute of Urdu and Persian Languages, was taken to the nearby Hayat Shaheed Teaching Hospital for medical treatment after the thrashing. Police registered the first information report and arrested the three students nominated as the accused in the case. "The three students forced their way into office of the professor and started beating him. They also hurled abuses at the professor," an official of the institute said.

The students, arrested by the campus police on the indication of the injured professor, included Asadullah Mayar, a drop-out of Persian department, Arbab Mir Afzal and Irfan Khan of sociology department.

The activists of APkSF, which is a splinter group of the Awami National Party-affiliated Pakhtun Student Federation, wanted to secure admission for their colleague Asadullah Mayar in the final year at the Persian department for which he was not qualified, the official said.

This was not the first time these students visited the office of Prof Faqeera Khan. They had gone there several times to put pressure on him for the admission of their colleague, the official said.

Prof Faqeera Khan said that Asadullah had failed the previous year examination. He said the student had not taken admission in the final year and had not attended any class and despite this was persistently asking him to give him admission for which he was not qualified. "How could I give him admission when he didn't meet the required criteria," the professor said.

The university administration downplayed the incident by terming the students as outsiders. "It is purely a police case and we condemn it," a university official told reporters. The teachers and students of the university, however, condemned the incident and urged the university administration to take immediate and stern action against the culprits. "If the university administration wants to keep the campus peaceful, it should take prompt action against the accused, otherwise the vice-chancellor would be responsible for any untoward incident," a senior professor said.

He ridiculed the university stance that the accused students were outsiders, saying that it was the responsibility of the university administration to provide protection to the teachers. "This shows that the administration wanted to bail out the students who have already been arrested by police," he argued. The news

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School bags getting heavier and heavier
Peshawar: In a recent study, a direct correlation has been pointed between the presence of back pain and how the school bag was carried. In the back-to-school preparations now keeping parents are busy. Researcher warns parents to be wary when choosing school bags, as one of the common causes of back pain is the use of school bags.

"Parents can do a lot in preventing such conditions, and to start with, they can encourage their child or teenager to tell them about pain or discomfort," says health expert. "Do not ignore any back pain in a child or a teenager talk to the school about lightening the load. Be sure the school allows students to stop at their lockers throughout the day and team up with other parents to encourage changes", he said.

Poor posture although a common complaint voiced by parents about their children is almost never a cause of paediatric back pain, according to researcher. "The cause of back pain in children can be divided into four main categories inflammatory conditions, tumours, mechanical problems, and developmental abnormalities". "The first two are more common in children less than 10 years of age, while the second two are most often seen in children 10 years and older. Most back injuries that children and adolescents sustain in athletic or other recreational activities are mild contusions, sprains and strains. Pain may result from injury or overuse of the many muscles or joints of the back." A group of recommendations have been suggested for parents, such as wide, padded shoulder straps as narrow straps can dig into shoulders causing pain and restricting circulation; two shoulder straps as backpacks with one shoulder strap that runs across the body cannot distribute weight evenly; a padded back that protects against sharp edges on objects inside the pack and increases comfort; a waist strap to distribute the weight of a heavy load more evenly; and several other suggestions to help decrease the possibility of back pain.

Meanwhile, children buckling under weight of heavy and poorly designed school bags, a charity has warned.

A back health charity said as many as 80 per cent of children carry too much weight in poorly designed bags and in the most harmful way on one shoulder.

It warned that excessive load-bearing for long periods on immature spines could put children at increased risk of future back problems in adulthood.

They said 'Other factors like badly designed school chairs also contribute to the problem, but back pain is a real problem for some children, causing an estimated 15 per cent to seek medical help. 'It's important for parents to take care over the backpack their child uses for school and try to ensure he or she wears it correctly.' The charity said a child's backpack should weigh no more than 10 per cent of the child's body weight and it should be worn over both shoulders so the weight is distributed correctly across the back. It said a well-designed schoolbag with a padded back panel is far more comfortable and less fatiguing.

'They carry them not only to and from school, but also throughout the day because they do not have lockers, or the lockers are not easily accessible. 'This may trigger back pain and certainly makes any existing back pain worse.'

A research over the past 10 years had indicated a significant incidence of recurrent back pain in school children, ranging from 13.1 per cent of younger children being affected and rising to 21.6 per cent, equivalent to adult levels, by age 16.

Up to 80 per cent of the population experiences back pain at some stage in their life and lots of adult back pain can be traced to childhood, according to the charity.

It is urging people to be aware of the strains and stresses placed upon young bodies as they grow.

Heavy school bags are causing children to suffer back pain, according to research. A study shows that more than a third of Italian pupils carry bags, which weigh more than 30% of their body weight at least once a week.

Scientists say guidelines for the weight of school backpacks should now be drawn up in an attempt to reduce increasing rates of low back pain in children.

The average load pupils carried were 9.3kg - 22% of their body weight, and the average maximum load were 11.5kg - about 28% of their body weight. Some children's bags weighed as much as 16.3kg, nearly half their body weight. F.P report

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IUB engineering college to re-open on 31st
Bahawalpur: The university college of engineering and technology, Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB), will reopen on Monday, says a press release issued on Friday.

The college remained closed for over three months. It was closed on Feb 19 after a violence by students on its two campuses. Some 13 students, who were found guilty, were expelled from the university.

However, the IUB later accepted their appeals and converted their expulsion into fine. The administration also sought surety bonds of good character from parents of all the students. The students had been staging sit-ins for several weeks to reopen the college.

The press release said all the remaining examinations of current semester/term would commence from June 3, about which a separate date sheet had been issued. It said hostels would open from Sunday (tomorrow). Dawn

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BMC students warn of 'violent protests'
Peshawar: Seeking recognition of their institution by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC), the students of Bannu Medical (BMC) College on Friday threatened "violent protests" if their demands were not met.

The students, who have been on the road for the last several days, declared that they would no more remain peaceful if the government continued its delaying tactics in taking steps for recognition of their college.

The students were of the opinion that the provincial government, particularly health minister Syed Zahir Ali Shah, was aware of their problems as they held several meetings with the officials and sent letters to them. "All the time he (the minister) assured us of resolving our problem on priority basis but to no avail," one of the students remarked.

"It is quiet hard to remain on the road while protesting in the scorching heat. But we have no other option for saving our future," another student said. The students reminded that they studied in the college for four long years, but still their college lacked recognition by the PM&DC. They argued that their college wasn't being recognized due to shortage of teaching staff and lack of other requirements.

"Only 20 percent facilities are available for medical education. This is the reason our college isn't being recognized," a student stressed. They said due to the indifferent attitude of the provincial government, the future of around 250 students studying in the college was at stake.

An educationalist said non-recognition of medical colleges had always been a problem

in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province not only in the private sector but also in the public sector.

He recalled that non-recognition problem was also faced by students of Saidu Medical College in Swat and Gomal Medical College in Dera Ismail Khan."The same method of staging protests was adopted by the students of those two colleges three years back to mount pressure on the government and get their institutions recognized," recalled the academician.

The professor said that students of those colleges too had come to the provincial metropolis and staged protest camps here after which the government had come into action to take steps for provision of the required facilities to get their medical colleges recognized. The situation of the private medical colleges, he stressed, was worse than those in the public sector. The news

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