KARACHI: Academic activities were forcibly suspended in a number of teaching departments
of the University of Karachi on Wednesday as a group of students continued their
protest against the revised university admission policy, which would cause lessening
the number of outstation admissions.
A students’ action committee, formed with the support from a number of student
organisations having large number of outstation students, has been spearheading
the protest movement against the revised university admission policy since the
last week.
The protesting students have expressed fear that the revised admission policy
would not only reduce the number of outstation entrants from the next academic
session.
KU campus Security Adviser, Khalid Iraqi, said that they had received reports
regarding forcible boycott of classes by the protesting students in the departments
of Mass Communication, Political Science, Sociology and Zoology.
He said that as such no student was apprehended while forcing suspension of classes
or found implicated in violent activities at the campus. He added that they had
not received reports of violence from any of the teaching departments of the university.
He said the security arrangements and measures at the campus would be beefed up
from Thursday in order to foil any future attempt to disrupt classes by the protestors.
However, sources at the KU told The News about ransacking of chairs, windowpanes
and other articles of the varsity property in some departments of the Arts and
Science faculties of the university.
Sources said the protesting students had managed to disrupt the academic activities
earlier in the day and no classes had taken place.
Sarwar Nasim, Media Adviser to the KU VC, said the damage to the university property
included that in the Mass Communication Department had been minimal and no major
violent incident at the campus had occurred.
Meanwhile, the KU VC has constituted a three-member committee of the senior university
teachers for proposing recommendations, after negotiating with the protesting
students, for resolving the current crises-like situation at the campus.
The committee with Dean Faculty of Islamic Studies, Prof Dr Abdul Rasheed, as
convenor and Prof Tanveer Khalid and Prof Asim Jamal as its members will submit
its report containing recommendations to the VC within two days.
Meanwhile, KU Director Admissions in a university press release has clarified,
that different categories of students for admissions-2006 to the KU will remain
intact.