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Administration has 15 days to decide the fate of suspended students
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Hostel allotment of 31 students cancelled
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Offices of student unions in hostels also dismantled
LAHORE: The Punjab University (PU) administration has decided to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against all the suspended students who were involved in the riots and clashes in the varsity that took place on Monday. The show-cause notices to these suspended students would be served in their lockups and police stations where they are residing these days. Chairing a high-level meeting of various heads of administrative departments on Thursday, the acting Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Zakria Zakir directed the disciplinary committee to serve the show-cause notices through concerned station house officers (SHOs) to the suspended students and the members of disciplinary committee to visit the locked-up students in jails and police stations to record their statements.
As many as 196 students of the Punjab University were presented in front of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday and were sent on judicial remand for 14 days while the physical remand of 13 students was given to the Muslim Town police station where the first information reports (FIRs) of the unrest and clashes were launched. These students were charged with destroying the property of the university and vandalising several vehicles including two police mobiles and five motorbikes during the scuffle that erupted between the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) and Pashtun as well as Baloch student unions on Monday.
A senior faculty member of the PU told this scribe that normalcy was seen on Thursday in the academic blocks of the varsity after three days as the attendance remained extremely thin during the last three days because of an atmosphere of fear prevailing at the campus.
“The administration is taking strict measures against the miscreants on the directives of the chief minister who asked the VC to take a stern action in order to maintain the law and order situation in the campus while chairing a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Law and Order the other day,” the senior faculty member said.
Meanwhile, the crackdown by the police and the university’s administration continued on Thursday as the hostel allotment of 31 students involved in the clashes were cancelled after taking an approval from the VC. The administration on Thursday also dismantled the offices of a student union established in hostel number 1 and the Sheikh Zaid Islamic Centre. Moreover, banners, flexes and posters of all the student unions are being removed from the hostel rooms and underpasses of the varsity.
Speaking to Pakistan Today, the spokesperson of the Punjab University Khurram Shehzad said that the show-cause notices have been prepared and would be served to the students on Friday in their lockups through concerned police officials.
“The members of the disciplinary committee would be accompanied by legal advisors in the lockups of the suspended students to ensure justice,” he said while adding that the university is bound to take a decision regarding the fate of the suspended students within 15 days otherwise their suspension would be overturned. Therefore we intend to initiate the process of the disciplinary committee as soon as possible and so the committee would start visiting them in a day or two, said Shehzad.