LARKANA: Larkana police, mediating between the principal and some other faculty members of the Govt Degree College in the city, have apparently succeeded in settling their two-month-old dispute that had badly affected the academic atmosphere at the institution.

At a meeting held in the office of SP (Head­quarters) Tauqeer Naeem, the Principal, Prof Ghulam Serwar Qureshi, was made to withdraw the FIR he had lodged against three faculty members and try to do away with his rude attitude towards his colleagues.

In the meantime, the three faculty members, Prof Mubeen Langah (head of the IT department), Prof Lal Bakhsh Kalhoro and Syed Imtiaz Shah (head of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association’s degree college unit), obtained their pre-arrest bail on Wednesday in the case lodged by the principal.

They were booked at the Rehmatpur police station on charges of attacking Principal Prof Qureshi.

Larkana district and sessions judge Abdul Ghafoor Kalhoro granted them pre-arrest bail in a sum of Rs50,000 each.

Later, SP Naeem called the principal and local SPLA’s degree college unit leaders to his office for mediation. During the deliberations, both sides pleaded their respective cases and accused one another of having spoiled the academic atmosphere at the college.

Sources privy to the talks told

Dawn that DSP Yar Mohammed Rind advised the principal to try to do away with his rough attitude towards his colleagues. The principal was told that his practice of accompanying outsiders while coming to the college caused unrest among the faculty and created certain problems.

He was also advised to withdraw the FIR in order to stop police from registering a counter-FIR intended to be lodged by the aggrieved professors.

According to sources, Principal Prof Qureshi has agreed to the advice.

Meanwhile, the SP has ordered setting up a police picket within the college to check further disturbances on the campus.

Prof Kalhoro, also an SPLA leader, made it clear at the meeting that holding protests was the faculty’s right which they would continue to exercise. He said the SPLA would also continue its drive for the removal of the principal.

Prof Qureshi had become a controversial principal and would have to be removed, he said.

Separately, the Larkana SPLA has condemned the police for using force against protesting teachers in Karachi on Wednesday. In a statement, the association said the teachers were peacefully raising their voice for their rights.

Published in Dawn, March 31th, 2016