After being appointed as the new principal of the Forman Christian College (FCC), in Lahore, an unruly welcome awaited Dr Peter Armacost at the campus. Some time in late March, on a Sunday afternoon, a group of around 300 angry FCC students broke into his residential premises and smashed the rear window screen of his car. They shouted slogans against his appointment and covered the college walls with posters calling for the government’s immediate reversal of its policy to denationalize the FC College.
That incident was enough for the government to provide Dr Armacost with round-the-clock security. The educational institution had suddenly turned into a garrison where four inspectors, a DSP, around 78 to 80 constables and more than 100 security personnel were deployed to protect the principal of the FC College.
It was apparently a cut and dry case of one educational institution being handed back to the Presbyterian Church, which had originally established it. It was called the denationalization of an educational institution. But the teachers and students of a particularly hardcore group were not willing to accept this simple definition. They had to see it in a bigger context of some US conspiracy to import its own brand of culture to make our ‘pure’ society salacious. Some of the groups suddenly felt disemboweled. Their authority to study on their own terms was undermined. Desperate to gain support among the people, they used the much-fatigued argument that handing back of the college meant a call to crusade. The FC College had become a battleground of Christianity versus Islam!
Around three years back, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ruled the return of the Forman Christian College to the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA). By 2004, all the 19 schools and the Gordon College in Rawalpindi, originally instituted by the mission, will go back to it. On March 28, 2003, in a letter addressed to the staff, the secretary education, Khushnood Lashari, stated: “The college had been handed over to the Presbyterian Church and the teachers need not worry about their future because they were the responsibility of the Punjab government”.
The Punjab education department warned the teachers to co-operate with the new management otherwise they would be transferred to another college. The teachers have till August 31, to decide whether they want to continue teaching at the FC College under the new management or would prefer to remain government employees. The FC College has a faculty of around 200 teachers. According to the strict criteria set by the 14-member board of governors of the college, constituted four years ago, 70 of them have been interviewed to assess their teaching abilities. “We would prefer foreign degrees and PhDs. There would be no political consideration,” affirmed Dr Christy Munir, vice-principal of the college.
Back in 1972, the FC College had been nationalized under the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He promised to construct a government based on socialism which would work towards eliminating class barriers. We now know that those barriers were further fortified and how class structure was redefined. Like other institutions, education also suffered. It is still difficult to ascertain that the policy devised three decades ago is wholly to blame for what is happening now at the FC College. What is being witnessed on the college campus is not dialogue; it is bigoted diatribe, bringing into question the kind of education being given to students who are playing part-time vandals.
The Joint Action Committee of students, teachers and doctors had been protesting against the University Model Ordinance for quite some time now. The FC College affair exposed those interested only in politicizing education and becoming part of a large lobby of agitators.
“My son left FC College last year to study information technology. The Jamiat-i-Talaba had been disrupting and boycotting classes for one year now. They would threaten students who refused to follow them. Tell me, how can any serious minded student study in these circumstances? I was very proud when my son got admission here. But FC College is no longer what it used to be,” said a disgruntled parent of a former Formanite.
How sad, but true! The Forman Christian College is not even a shadow of what it used to be. Founded by Dr Charles W Forman in 1864, the college began its more than a century long existence in a small room inside the walled city of Lahore. Now, overlooking the canal and surrounded by luxuriant foliage and tall trees, it covers an area of about 109 acres.
Summoning up the past in an article Meem Sheen, a reputable journalist and a former Formanite, wrote in Recollections of an old Formanite, “....The Forman Christian College in those days was situated on the Mall facing the YMCA building.... But much more impressive than the college building was a mixed galaxy of teachers, who manned the staff. The tall ponderous and stately figure of Principal S.K. Datta and his equally well-build Irish wife, were almost omnipresent on the college premises.... The staff was a cocktail of races and nationalities. There were Americans like Dr E.D. Lucas, Dr F.M. Veltte and Dr S.L. Sheets. There were dark-skinned South Indians, like Dr Checko, Dr Subramanyama and, of course, Punjabis like Professor M.S. Bhatty, Prof Abdul Majid Khan. There was also an ex-ICS Englishman Prof P.I. Painter, and Prof Siraj Din and Dr Sinclair were a sort of permanent landmarks of the college landscape... The college, under their influence, had become a symbol of inter-communal harmony....”
Meem Sheen’s idyllic portrayal of the FC College seems to be an observation made too long ago. In 1970, there were only 900 students, which increased to an unbelievable 4,300 in recent years. The administration deteriorated, the management was non-existent and education was heavily dependent upon the extreme idealism of politically activated union groups. After the denationalization, they threatened students and teachers to boycott classes, misbehaving with teachers who refused to give in.
“We’ve never seen something like this before. There have been no classes for two months now. It was saddening to see students showing no respect for us. All we asked of them was to protest outside the college campus and let others study,” said the college professor.
On May 23, 2003, Sohaib Nazir, the FCC Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba Nazim was expelled. He was charged by the administration with inciting disorder and provoking third year students to boycott internal exams. Other charges against Sohaib Nazir were damaging a faculty member’s car, unauthorized residency and breaking illegally into one of the college’s halls of residence.
“You’ll see how they’ll start preaching Christianity. Just wait and see. We can’t be expected to sit around and wait for that to happen!” exploded a student, actively participating in protests.
The protests are mainly based on the fear that the board of governors’ announcement to increase the fee structure will create class conflict, preventing financially constrained students from continuing their education.
“The standard they have set for teachers’ selection will make many of us redundant. Where will we go? It is unfair to return the place to the mission. If the basis of denationalization is giving the college back to its original owners, then the government should give the entire country back to the British and other rulers of the subcontinent,” came the anger-filled response of a teacher.
One of the changes brought immediately by the new administration is to reduce the number of students in each section from 75 to 30. “That will improve the quality of education and discipline, and teachers will be more attentive towards students. They will be accountable which they were not before because they knew their jobs were safe and salaries were being drawn each month. Those were some of the major problems of nationalization. Our foremost concern right now is to keep to the curricula to enable the already enrolled students to complete their degree. It’s the new ones who will be studying the changed curricula,” explained the vice principal, Dr Christy Munir.
Dr Munir rejected the allegation of charging high fees, explaining that as a charitable mission the college could not do that. “Students already enrolled will not be required to pay extra. We will be increasing the fees of new students. At the same time, the college will increase the teachers’ salaries. We have to do that to run the college. The fees will still be lower than being charged by other private institutions,” claimed Dr Christy Munir.
Good or bad, the denationalization of this particular college shows the unwillingness of successive governments, since 1972, in prioritizing education. It also shows that if the highest authority in the country can face up to extremism and unwarranted politicization of an issue, it can do so on other national matters.
After being appointed as the new principal of the Forman Christian College (FCC), in Lahore, an unruly welcome awaited Dr Peter Armacost at the campus. Some time in late March, on a Sunday afternoon, a group of around 300 angry FCC students broke into his residential premises and smashed the rear window screen of his car. They shouted slogans against his appointment and covered the college walls with posters calling for the government’s immediate reversal of its policy to denationalize the FC College.
