LAHORE – From a wrong person wearing the king’s crown to the untimely winter holidays for the Punjab University (PU) students, anything out of place gets to be the center of attention. One may ponder as to what may be the purpose of winter holidays.
It ranges from facilitating students to spend quality time with their family, probably on a hill station, to keeping them warm in their houses and relaxing them cold university hours during a bone chilling, literally, season.
Both the reasons, and probably the range in between, were surely not considered by the PU administration before announcing the winter holidays. Surely though, according to the PU administration, the students were facilitated to spend a peaceful Ashura back at their homes. But then they were Muharram holidays in guise of winter holidays, or not?
HOLIDAYS WASTED: Untimely winter vacations for the Punjab University (PU) students not only disturbed their traveling plans but will also leave them holiday-less when winter intensifies, said PU students on an unexpected holiday notification by the PU administration. Sunday being the last day of the holidays that began from December 13, students expressed their concern over holidays that were wasted. They said that they will have to go to the university in severe cold season now. Holidays should have been stretched till the end of the year at least.
YOU CALL THEM WINTERS? Naeem Gillani, a BS Hons student, said, “I come to the university on a motorcycle and when the cold intensifies, it will become far more difficult for me to commute. What was the point of giving winter holidays before winter?” He also said that the students were already falling sick owing to dry weather and now when the actually intensified cold season will set in, it will only add to their miseries.
Students were also concerned of the fog problem in the city. They said that its density will rise in the coming days and students could face severe problems while traveling for varsity. Talal Raza, a student, said, “Fog intensifies by the end of December and the spirit of winter vacations fails if they are not given according to the schedule.” He also said that it was only PU who gave early holidays unlike any other university, which proves his point.
A student named Abrar Tauheed was quite upset with the timing of the holidays, he said that he wanted to visit a hill station in vacations but it was not possible to do so during Muharram holidays. He said that instant announcement damaged their plans.
‘STUDENTS WERE FACILITATED’: PU registrar Dr Muhammad Akhter told Pakistan Today that during the tenure of Lt Gen (r) Arshad Mehmood as vice chancellor, PU administration used to merge winter vacations with Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid-ul-Azha. He negated the impression that holidays were given earlier than expected in order to launch an operation in the hostel premises, but accepted that the security of hostels has been tightened up due to Muharram.
He stated that the PU admin wanted to facilitate the students for Ashura. Had the admin given holidays after Ashura then boarders would have had to travel to their houses and back twice, he said adding that the decision was made on the proposal given by the students. He said the intensified cold wave the students were talking about will last for no more than two to three days and was not a big issue.
‘YES WE WERE’: Some students lauded the varsity’s decision and termed it a student friendly idea. A hostel boarder Samra Saeed appreciated the step taken by varsity admin and said that the step was in the benefit of the students. She said that during Muharram the parents already feared for the security of their children and these holidays gave a kind of a relief to them.
She said that frequent holidays tend to disturb the hostel boarders and this merger of Muharram and winter holidays was definitely a better idea.
