June 20, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1428

MANDI BAHAUDDIN, June 19: The nursing school administration on Tuesday sent 19 students of fourth year, who had complaints against the principal and EDO (health), on a seven-day leave soon after the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of their reported detention.

Parents and a large number of relatives received them at the school gate.

Six of the students (their names withheld) told Dawn that before leaving they were asked by the administration to sign a blank paper and an affidavit that “what happened on Monday was a misunderstanding.”

Students claimed that they were “detained” by the administration on Monday so that they could not speak to the media. The administration, however, said the entire episode, as shown by a TV channel, was a staged one.

Nawab Khan, the father of a student, alleged that the principal (reportedly suspended on Monday) and EDO (health) had been forcing the fourth-year students to dance in their private functions.

He said principal Mrs Nazli Saleem had been making forced deductions from the students’ stipend to pay gifts to the EDO and his children. He said he would never allow his daughter to return to the school.

The six students this correspondent talked to said they were forced to dance in school and other private functions which were held at different places, including rest houses, in the presence of district administration officers.

Muhammad Zahir Khan, president of the Mandi Bahauddin press club, told this correspondent that the students had been exploited by the school and district administration. He said the role of some local journalists too was negative who had always supported the administration.

He said that nursing school administration had on several occasions taken the students to the salt mines area for private functions.

He said on June 13 some journalists visited the school and sought Mrs Nazli Saleem’s response to students’ allegations. He said initially she tried to settle the issue with the journalists, but later lodged a case of trespass against one of the journalists.

Muhammad Faisal, a PCO operator in the neighbourhood of the school, told Dawn that a number of students, while making calls to their parents from his PCO in the past, had complained against the administration.

Riaz Asghar Chaudhry, the district nazim, said that a few days ago he received an anonymous complaint against Mrs Nazli Saleem and referred it to the DCO for investigation. He said it was only on Sunday last that the parents of four students submitted him a written complaint.

He said there were 193 students in the school and no one, except fourth year, complained about the forced dancing. “It is a conspiracy hatched by a local journalist whose niece was also in the fourth year,” he said.

Asked why the students have been allowed to leave when the inquiry was being conducted, he said their statements had already been obtained.

DCO Abdus Sattar Sheikh told Dawn that the complaint he received from the nazim was forwarded to the AEDO (health).

Rejecting students’ charges, EDO Dr Pervaiz Nazir Tarar said he, the district nazim, DCO, and other officers had been visiting the school with their wives and children. “How come we enjoy dances in the presence of our families?” he asked.

He said other complaints of students about mess, electricity, and potable water were genuine and he had made efforts to solve them.

Principal Mrs Nazli Saleem was not available for comments.