Little serious effort made to reopen university
Educational activities at the centre-of-excellence Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad have been suspended since October 4, but the seeds of the present crisis were sown in May 2017, when an unscholarly clash on campus between two groups resulted in expulsion of some students. Signs of unrest failed to simmer down even over the intervening months and led to the early October shutdown, an unfortunate and unacceptable situation that however continues to this day.
Yesterday, the two student gladiatorial groups were in battle-mode again at the University premises, to the accompaniment of police firing tear gas. Somewhere along the line, the student activists had managed to collect a 13-point charter of demands, which included cancellation of rustication orders of the expelled students, release of those detained in police clashes, withdrawal of recent fee hike, better facilities at hostels and removal of the Vice Chancellor. An attempt to reopen the University on October 24, after 19 days failed amid tight but apparently, for the students, provocative, police presence, despite the release of some earlier arrested students. So, 79 more arrests, and there the tense matter rests, or rather stands at this juncture.
And it is a sorry state of affairs, shedding no good light either on the students, or on the University administration or in fact on the mandarins of the Education Ministry. The QUA, which once boasted of top class faculty in many spheres, particularly physics, biology, history and social sciences, and some leading productive scientists, was gearing up to celebrate the golden jubilee of its founding (1967-2017) but now lies paralysed by continuing protests. The incompetence of the University administration in seeking some urgent compromise solution to the embarrassing indefinite closure reflects our general management inclination to let matters drift till they reach an insoluble point, in other spheres also. The Federal Education Minister could have played a more forceful and positive role, but being appointed recently in August 2017, he is probably still savouring the joy and thrill of being a cabinet member. A sad reflection on our educational priorities.
