PESHAWAR, March 16: The United Students Front of the Islamic Centre, University of Peshawar, has urged the government to revise the outdated curricula as students have been denied admission to other university departments after having obtained B.A (Hons) degree from the centre.

A large number of students held a demonstration under the aegis of the USF, a conglomerate of the various student organizations, in front of the Peshawar Press Club on Saturday.

Carrying placards inscribed with slogans against the police intervention in hostels, the administration and the university authorities, the demonstrators claimed that the university didn’t recognize their three-year degree.

Leaders of the Islami Jamiat Tulba, People’s Students Federation and Pakhtoon Students Federation said in their speeches that students were being taught outdated and irrelevant subjects at the centre. Each year, they added, hundreds of students were denied admissions to different departments as their subjects didn’t make a combination with any other disciplines offered by the university.

“We are being taught 48 Islamic and Economics courses. It is a three-year theology course which makes no difference with M.A Islamyat and M.A Arabic. If it is not matching the requirements of the modern age, then why is it being taught?” they asked.

They complained that outsiders had occupied the hostel rooms, but the director had not taken any action against them. Instead, they added, the police had been allowed to harass the protesting students.

The so-called computer laboratory, they said, was in a bad shape.

The students had been protesting for the last three days against the presence of the police in the centre and hostels, but no one was listening to them, they said.

They criticized the attitude of the vice-chancellor towards students’ demands and urged the government to remove him immediately.

They demanded of the government to replace their curriculum with useful courses reflecting the modern day requirements. They also urged the government that University of Peshawar should be advised to grant admissions to the outgoing students of the centre in various departments. They also demanded withdrawal of the police from the hostel and the centre premises.