April 11, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 4, 1429

KARACHI, April 10: With the law and order situation still precarious, the University of Karachi reopens on Friday.

A meeting was held by KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim with student organisations in order to review the situation on Thursday.

However, Campus Adviser Dr Khalid Iraqi has denied rumours that the police are being posted on campus to control the law and order situation as the Rangers withdrew last Saturday.

The campus adviser said he had no information about the area police being called in for law enforcement duties on campus.

When Rangers’ PRO, Capt Fazal, was asked to confirm if the paramilitary force is officially taking charge of law enforcement duties at Karachi University, he said it all depended on the administration and the Sindh government.

However, when asked if the Rangers would assist the university administration should it require their services and if no other law enforcement agency had been asked, he replied: “Yes, we will surely perform our duties to maintain peace on campus.”

He also emphasised that the Rangers had withdrawn from the campus gates out of respect for the teachers as the teachers had demanded it. He said though they are bound to follow the university directives, they did not receive any instructions from the administration to withdraw their men from the gates at any time.

According to sources at the university, it was clear that the university administration and Rangers had some discussions and the Rangers have ensured they would not leave the campus and resume their role.

However, the main student groups on campus claim that there was no major clash between them as such.

“The university was closed down because the administration wanted to let the issue between the teachers and the Rangers settle down. Otherwise, never in history has the university been shut down for so long just because of a clash between student groups,” maintained sources in two student organizations. “They want to ascertain how important the presence of the Rangers is,” they added.

The VC, in the meeting with representatives of student groups, student adviser and campus adviser, asked them to maintain peace on campus since it was the students who were paying the price of the shutdown.

The student groups have assured they will help maintain peace.