LAHORE, May 14: Punjab University (PU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Mujahid Kamran says the university will not be closed again as “the PU administration cannot be cowed down by protest demonstrations as well as other pressure tactics”.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Prof Kamran said the deans committee had decided that the university would not be closed again and instead the teachers would handle the situation.

The PU was closed on Monday for four days to, what the administration says, avert clashes between police and the Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT). The radical student faction of the Jamaat-i-Islami was stopped from holding a book fair on New Campus.

But PU Spokesman Dr Mujahid Mansoori told a press conference the PU would only be closed again, if the IJT managed to gather a large number of activists. He, however, added the IJT would not be able to gather its activists in such a large number.

Dr Mansoori said the administration had to close the university because IJT activists could clash with the police deployed on the campus. He said the Jamiat activists were residing in university hostels as well as in different city colleges to clash with the university administration as well as police.

"Suspending academic activity for four days was not an administrative failure but an action to avert a serious situation," he said.

The PU spokesman said the university had held a Deans' Committee meeting on Wednesday and had called a meeting of all deans, constituent colleges' principals, institutes' directors, department's chairpersons and professors on Thursday (today).

"Any decision regarding the future course of action will be taken in consultation with all senior faculty members," he added.

Dr Mansoori said the administration had not consulted the Academic Staff Association over the closure of the university because, in his opinion, its executive body was dominated by IJT's supporters.

Dr Mansoori also told reporters the three out of four IJT activists, who were on the forefront to organise the controversial book fair were not university's bonafide students but "external elements". Therefore, they had no legal or moral reason to hold the book fair in a national institution without valid permission from the varsity administration.