ONCE again, a university has issued an official notification placing restrictions on the dress that students can wear on campus.

It has justified this as an effort “to promote a positive image” of the university. The institute in question is the National Textile University in Faisalabad, and the restrictions that are spelled out in the notification are absurd considering the close connection between the textile and fashion industries in Pakistan.

For example, “stylish sunglasses” and designer caps will no longer be allowed on campus. Banned also are “t-shirts or any clothes carrying emblems, letters, art of slogans and pictures printed on them”.

Simply by issuing this notification, the university management — led by its registrar — has exposed itself to mockery.

Arguing that such codes are required to ensure that the students’ dress code is “in accordance with the values enshrined in the divine code and in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” takes the fun out of the joke, but nothing more.

It is not the job of the registrar of any university, let alone one dedicated to the study of textiles, to enforce a dress code on its students. It is shameful to see the management backing this absurd action and invoking divinity and the country’s Constitution in the process.

Reportedly, the notification has generated protests from amongst the student body, which is entirely appropriate, and the parents of the protesting students ought to support them.

Increasingly, universities across Pakistan are resorting to such tactics — only recently NUST issued a similar code and started fining students for violations — and the trend shows that university administrations are more interested in the moral policing of their campuses than in ensuring excellence in the standard of education.

If the administrations of these institutions are truly concerned about their image, they would clearly lay out and enforce policies against gender discrimination and sexual harassment on their campuses first. Let the parents worry about what the students are wearing.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2016