Muzzling the academia

Need to explain

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) was forced by ‘government’ to cancel a scheduled talk on Balochistan featuring half a dozen academicians and rights activists. Mama Qadeer, a 70 year-old Baloch who led a peaceful march from Quetta to Islamabad last year to highlight the large scale disappearances in Balochistan was one. That a talk in a respectable university should cause such a disturbance in the corridors of power is indicative of a deep-set phobia about facts becoming public. The disappearances are no secret. Three years back the Supreme Court held open hearings on the issue, passing adverse remarks about some of the big guns in agencies involved in the high handedness. Skies would not have fallen if the conference had been allowed to take place. Forcing LUMS to cancel an academic discussion exposes not only the hollowness of the establishment but also its lack of respect for the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution.

The action has turned out to be counter-productive. If the idea was to hush up the issue of Balochistan, it has failed to happen. Had not the conference been cancelled few outside the LUMS would have taken notice of its proceedings as had happened with the two earlier events of the series. The unwise interference has led to protest marches inside the university by students and the student council has announced wearing of black bands and asking questions about Balochistan in the classes. The issue has received wide coverage in the national media.

One expects those in power to focus their energies on curbing religious extremism. It is an irony that while the leaders of the banned outfits are free to deliver speeches and seminaries linked with terrorists have not been touched, academic freedom is being blatantly violated under an administration which takes pride in calling itself democratic. There is a need on the part of the PML-N government to clarify whether the action was taken by it or by some parallel government functioning in the country.