PESHAWAR: Students of tribal regions on Monday held a protest demonstration here against the federal government for failure to rebuild the damaged buildings of educational institutions in Fata.

Fata Students Federation president Burhanuddin, vice president Khan Bahadur Wazir and general secretary Imdadullah led the protesters.

They said the government was least bothered to rebuild the damaged schools, as a result thousands of children had been deprived of education.

Holding banners and placards inscribed with demands the students also shouted against the federal government and officials of Fata secretariat. The protest led to suspension of vehicular traffic on the main Warsak Road.

“We have time and again held meetings with relevant officials of Fata secretariat and elected representatives of different tribal agencies, but none of them took any measure to address the problem,” Mr Burhanuddin alleged. He said children of the elected representatives of Fata were getting education abroad or in Islamabad and thus, they had no interest in providing education to poor students.

Meanwhile, students of a private university on Monday staged a demonstration against the varsity administration for intentionally failing the students in the examinations to get high fees from them for reappearing in the supplementary examinations.

The enraged students blocked the busy Bagh-i-Naran Road in Hayatabad for hours, causing hardships to motorists and pedestrians. The students holding banners and placards chanted slogans against the administration of Iqra National University Peshawar.

They said the university had been charging hefty Rs15,000 from students for reappearing in each failed paper.

They also came down heavily on the university administration for holding supplementary examinations in Ramazan. They said the pass percentage for each paper was 60 per cent, which was intended to fail maximum students in the examination to fleece more money from them for reappearing.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2016