LAHORE: Students and teachers from different colleges and activists of Islami Jamiat Taliba on Tuesday staged a rally against the establishment of Board of Governors in 26 public colleges of the province.
Protesters marched from Regal Square to Assembly hall and blocked the mall road for more than two hours. The rally was jointly organized by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), Punjab Professors & Lecturers Association (PPLA) and Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT).
Dozens of students and teachers participated and expressed resentment over the establishment of the board. They were holding the banners and the posters and chanted slogans against the government’s action. Arshad mehmood, student of MAO College, told Pakistan Today that student and teacher representatives had met Rana Sanalluah Law Minster of Punjab and he had promised to cancel the notification regarding the appointment of Board of Governors in colleges.
He alleged that after the meeting with the minister, the teachers who participated in negotiations had been transferred to the suburbs of Punjab. He said that students and the teachers will not allow the Board of Governors to even enter the premises of colleges. Jamshed Ali, a student of Govt. Science College talking to the Pakistan Today said that government had ordered to merge the 2 year bachelors program into a four years program without having any kind of ground work.
He criticized that with a lack in PhD and MPhil professors it would be difficult for the students to complete four year bachelors program. Nazim of Islami Jamiat e Talba Punjab, Qaisar Shareef expressed his fears that the decision would directly impact the fee structure of the colleges which would consequently burden the already financially burdened parents. He said that with the increase in fee, poor people would not be able to educate their children.
He added, some of government colleges were put under Board of Governors including Queens Marry College Lahore, Kinnaird College Lahore, FC College Lahore and Government College Lahore in which now poor could not get education. The protesters demanded for the rapid cancellation of the notification putting colleges under the control of Board of Governors. Due to the protest and the consequent road block the citizen’s suffered road jams.
