05 July 2004	Monday	16 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 4: Over 150 students of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, accusing the university management for allegedly demanding bribe to grant degrees, urged the authorities concerned to resolve the issue immediately.

Some representatives of the students, who staged a token hunger strike at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, said that they had been protesting against the high handedness of the university management in Hyderabad for the last couple of months.

They said that they were also observing hunger strike at Hyderabad Press Club, but, as the issue was not being resolved they had come to observe token hunger strike at Karachi Press Club.

The protesting students, who belong to 1993 batch, alleged that the university management was demanding bribe - ranging between Rs50,000 and Rs200,000 - to issue them the degrees. They claimed that they could not afford to give bribe for which they had not been given degrees.

To resolve the issue, they said, the university management had instituted a two-member committee comprising university registrar and dean faculty of engineering in December 2003. They said the committee recommended that these students be given 400 grace marks and granted degrees.

The students blamed the university management for using delaying tactics. They alleged that the management was not complying with the committee's recommendation, as 400 grace marks were given to two students - a son of a retired judge and a brother of a university official.

Both the students had failed in many subjects, they said and added that those who gave bribe had also been granted degrees. They warned that if they were not given the degrees they might commit self-immolation.

The students, who staged the hunger strike on Sunday, included Fateh M. Junejo, Mustafa Leghari, Yasir Falastini, Umran Tunio, Maqsood Alam, Faisal Shahani, Shahid Hussain, Mushtaq Mirjat, Irfan Sahir, Samad Shaikh, Ghani Shaikh, Mudassar Leghari, Lutf Ali and others.