December 19, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 27, 1427

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RAWALPINDI, Dec 18: The students of the Government Commerce College (GCC) continued their protests on Monday against the attack on one of their teachers by the owner and principal of a private institute in Wah as higher officers in TEVTA pushed the victim for compromise.

Following the strike of students and teachers under United Action Front on Friday and Saturday, the students of GCC gathered outside college on Monday morning and shouted slogans against Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) and Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA). The protesters demanded the arrest of the accused, the cancellation of on-going examinations and the shifting of the examination centre.

As aftermath of the strike, the GCC administration has closed the institute for two days and postponed the internal examinations to avoid any untoward incident, said the Principal Professor Mian Rahat Mehmood.

Talking to Dawn the victim, Professor Imdadullah of GCC, said he was appointed as distributing inspector in Wah for the annual examinations of Diploma in Associate Engineering (DAE). Apart from distributing sealed question papers his duties included inspection of the examination centres.

He said on December 6 during his visit to Swedish Institute of Technologies (SIT), one of the examination centres, he found an invigilator from the same institute helping the students using unfair means in English paper. The inspector said he asked the superintendent to remove the invigilator as it was against the rule of the PBTE to appoint invigilators from the same institute. said the inspector.

On December 8 when he again visited the college during Mathematics paper, the owner and the principal of the institute Zarar Butt questioned his authority and started beating him along with his brother. They kept him in a closed room and beat black and blue. The inspector said he contacted his principal on his mobile phone that resulted in arrival of principal of commerce college from Pindi Ghaib. He took him to hospital and helped him in lodging an FIR, he added.

After the incident, two inquiry teams were set up, one was independent team of two members comprising secretary Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Rawalpindi and a professor from Degree College for Boys Satellite Town. The team found the principal of SIT guilty of battering and assaulting the professor and presented their report to the chairman of PBTE. However, the official inquiry team with principals of GCC, Gujar Khan, and Kahuta as its members, could not reach any conclusion and requested District Manager (DM) TEVTA Ms Mehru Nisa to appoint committee of higher officers to investigate the matter.

Mr Imdadullah said the DM asked him to compromise with the what he said influential accused and said that it would be better for him to forget the whole incident.

When contacted, the DM said although the matter directly came under PBTE purview and not TEVTA, the inquiry was initiated and the findings were sent to the high ups. She also said she did not force the victim to reach compromise rather advised him to reconcile as this would pacify the tension for the betterment of the students who were the ultimate sufferers.