KARACHI, Sept 16: Students of the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology on Thursday boycotted their classes at around 11am in protest against their principal's attitude and remarks passed by him against female students.

They also tried to stage a sit-in in front of the college. However, Rangers deployed at the DCET dispersed the students while resorting to light baton charge. The students, later reached the Karachi Press Club and held a protest demo against their principal, Saleem Chaudhry's, alleged "derogatory remarks" against female students.

They also demanded the restoration of the college's accreditation by the Pakistan Engineering Council. DCET students have been staging demonstrations for the last several months for restoration of their college's accreditation by the PEC and removal of their principal Saleem Chaudhry.

The demonstration by the DCET students at the KPC continued for more than three hours, chanting slogans for restoration of accreditation and against their principal. They said that they were just struggling for their just rights, as without the PEC's accreditation, no national or international industrial concern was willing to give them jobs.

"Two passed-out batches from the DCET are suffering due to cancellation of the college's accreditation by the PEC, and no one is ready to employ them," they said. They appealed to President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi to look into the affairs of the college.

Meanwhile, the DCET administration has claimed that classes were held as per routine on Thursday, adding that, however, a group of students went around the classes at 11am and threatened students to boycott. This resulted in disturbance in teaching process for 20 to 25 minutes, they said.

However, after the group of students left the college, normal academic activities resumed, added a DCET press release. It maintained that a PEC meeting would shortly be held in Islamabad and a positive decision regarding DCET's registration was expected within a four weeks time, the statement said. - PPI