PU groups come up with ‘hate literature’

[Salman Mushtaq]

Difference of opinion and healthy debate are hallmarks of an educated society but an unnecessary war of words deprives it of any such title of honour. That personal views and mere likes and dislikes take the form of vituperation against ‘rivals’ in an institution of Punjab University’s standing is a sign of intellectual degradation. The recent confrontation between anti- and pro-administration (read vice chancellor) groups manifests an all-too-visible departure from decency as Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran’s four-year tenure is inching towards expiry on Jan 3 next.
The parties supporting different groups have started bringing out handbills to vent their anger against each other. Although this “mode of communication” has been in vogue for years, the latest outbursts have brought forth the darkest side of campus politics. Anti-VC groups have minced no word in trying to expose his (Prof Kamran’s) moral corruption; the language they have used is unbecoming of students or teachers.
Two handbills had been circulated in the university offices, faculty and employees’ homes and hostels in the past week by the Islami Jamiat Tulaba and the other most probably by a group of university teachers and employees. In retaliation, the pro-administration PU Teachers Front has also brought out a handbill reviling the president of the Punjab University Academic Staff Association.
The first handbill addressed to the vice chancellor “Door of Repentance is Open” has apparently been released by the Islami Jamiat Tulaba, wherein the VC has been advised to “behave like a teacher instead of……..”.
The handbill states that the VC should “shun the depression that he just failed to stop the holding of Jamiat’s three-day All-Pakistan General Convention on university campus and think like a teacher.”
The IJT says the students’ congregation had pledged to end sectarianism, lingualism and nudity in educational institutions and promote unity among Muslims, Pakistanism and a culture of modest and mutual respect.
“The IJT will give due respect to the VC, if he supports their cause. There is no substance in his concern that other student organisations’ right to hold their events will be usurped, if the IJT alone is allowed to hold its activities on the campus.”
They say the IJT had been a leading student organisation in the PU for the last over five decades. The VC’s well-wishers claim that Prof Kamran had taken IJT’s support to progress in his career in the university, reads the handbill.
They demand that the VC should stop hurling abuses on low-grade employees and know that the university is nobody’s personal property but a public-sector institution. They say Student Adviser Iftikhar Chaudhry had already resigned expressing that he could not go against students to satisfy VC’s ego.
Subsequently, another handbill was circulated in the university most probably by a group of university employees and faculty members. It was titled “Gaudy Vice-Chancellor —- Black Deeds”.
Besides blowing rakish air about the vice chancellor, the handbill promoters have tried to expose “VC’s failure to implement rule of law and doing justice to all and sundry.”
They allege: “VC Prof Kamran, who was appointed at the behest of dictator Pervez Musharraf, has ruined PU’s identity, environment as well as academic and research standards. The VC has made around 450 out-of-merit appointments and
postings and blasted all rules and regulations in order to favour his group. Those in return, harassed other teachers and employees, and blew VC’s trumpet.”They further say the VC is bent upon using his authority to victimise his rival group members, whether they are among employees or faculty. The handbill claims a Punjab Assembly standing committee inquiry has proved all these allegations.
They say vice chancellor’s disciple Prof Dr Shaukat Ali has two ‘fake’ matriculation certificates and demand that a case be registered against him and his Syndicate membership should be cancelled forthwith. They allege that Prof Kamran allotted three-kanal residence to his cousin, Prof Dr Mansoor Sarwar, who is principal of the PU College of Information Technology.
Similarly, they allege, the VC appointed Prof Dr Makshoof, who has three third divisions in his academic career, as the Institute of Chemistry director as well as a hostel superintendent.
They demand that the Punjab government should remove Prof Kamran from the post in the light of investigations and reports of probe committees and the misappropriated Rs1.5 billion be recovered and spent on university’s upgrade as well as the promotion of academics and research.
The pro-administration PU Teachers Front has brought out a handbill stating that the Jamaat-i-Islami and its agents are making all-out efforts to ridicule university administration’s actions at a time when the vice chancellor’s tenure is expiring in two month’s time.
The PUTF claims the present administration has fixed the ineligible and depraved elements. It says PUASA President Prof Dr Mahr Saeed Akhtar, along with aides Dr Mumtaz Salik, Dr Mumtaz Anwar and leader of ‘ghunda’ elements in employees Ghulam Abbas Lodhi and another employee, Munir Awan (already terminated), distributed a handbill outside the Punjab Assembly, which was also published as an advertisement in an Urdu newspaper.
It claims that Prof Akhtar and his aides made efforts to get the report of the PA committee penned.Answering the allegation of out-of-merit appointments, PUTF led by Prof Dr Shaukat Ali says senior university teachers have lost Orderly Allowance facility due to Prof Dr Mahr Saeed Akhtar. It says the report, which Prof Akhtar is demanding for tabling in the Punjab Assembly, has actually demanded recovery of Orderly Allowance already paid to them.
The report also recommends stoppage of house requisition and recovery of the already paid funds.
The PUTF also alleges that Prof Akhtar wants abolition of in-service teachers’ appointment system, in vogue since 1991, wherein they are appointed after four months of the last date of submission of applications. It says Prof Akhtar also considers fresh PhDs’ appointment on a contract illegal.
The Teachers Front says all these issues have already been ratified by the PU Syndicate decades ago. Owing to this reason alone, the Public Accounts Committee reviewed all financial matters and denied all allegations.
The Front also alleges that Prof Akhtar was appointed a primary teacher in university’s Laboratory School through a student union and then got inducted in the Institute of Education and Research (IER) using Jamaat-i-Islami’s pressure.
“Prof Akhtar became professor with the passage of time but could never develop his mental horizon beyond a primary schoolteacher,” it comments.
The Front’s handbill also explains that Prof Akhtar considers payment of PhD’s half allowance to MPhil degree-holders and grant of next grade to faculty members waiting for their promotions for years and given little financial benefit illegal.
It says the university administration also regularised the services of hundreds of employees who were working on a contract for long while following rules and regulations instead of following JI’s recommendations. These are the facts which are pinching the university administration’s anti-lobby, the PUTF argues.
The Front also demands that Prof Akhtar must also identify the employees and faculty members in his ranks who are accused of irregularities, immorality, plagiarism.