LHC orders registering FIR against police

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Monday ordered registering a first information report (FIR) against the policemen who manhandled teachers and students protesting against establishing board of governors (BoG) in public-sector colleges in front of the Punjab Assembly.
The LHC CJ issued the order after seeing picture of a policeman beating a bleeding teacher lying down on the road. The court also allowed owner of a private bus burnt by students to be party in the suo motu proceedings. The LHC CJ also summoned all stakeholders today (Tuesday) to settle the issue. The court also directed teacher leader Zahid Sheikh to submit a written reply today explaining why teachers took students to the Punjab Assembly on December 9 where they ransacked public and private property. The court also summoned the Punjab education secretary today to explain the government stance on the BoG issue.
Earlier, DIG (Operations) Rao Sardar submitted his report while Punjab Additional Advocate General Hanif Khatana read the report stating that the Punjab Police inspector general or any other high-ranking official, including DIGs, did not order torture on students despite the fact that they broke into the Punjab Assembly main gate. Policemen and security guards deputed at the assembly took action against students and teachers for ensuring security at the assembly premises, which could not be compromised in any case, he said.
The reported claimed that action taken by officials against the protestors was defensive and not offensive, as students had crossed all security limits. Khatana said teachers misused students for their vested interests and alleged that most of the teachers were running private colleges and academies by saving time from their college duties and feared that the BoG would take action against them.
The Punjab additional advocate general said that the Punjab government did not plan to privatise colleges or raise fees and the teachers association was misguiding students for using them for protests. When the teachers association counsel asked Khatana that whether he could give an undertaking that fees would not be raised, the Punjab additional advocate general refused saying that he needed instructions from the Punjab government in this regard.