NAWABSHAH: The Peoples Medical University for Girls, Nawabshah, was closed for three days on Wednesday following a day of agitation by a group of students over action against 14 of them.

The 14 students were termed back in bio-chemistry (minor) by their teacher, Ms Naheed, which annoyed them and made them demand her removal and reversal of her decision. To register their protest, the aggrieved students along with others boycott all academic activities and gathered outside the office of Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Azam Husain Yousifani to seek his intervention in the matter.

After failing to get a positive response, they moved to the main gate of the university, forcibly opened it and marched up to the Hospital Road to block it.

Raising slogans against the teacher, the protesters proceeded to the local press club, where they held a noisy demonstration.

The enraged students informed journalists about ‘injustice’ to the 14 students and said they had never resorted to holding a protest though they had been facing many problems and unfair treatment at the university in the past. “But the latest action taken by our teacher is intolerable,” they said.

They alleged that teachers at the university were blackmailing them for minting money. The students who give them money are passed,” they claimed.

Vice Chancellor Prof Yousifani, when contacted, said that the 14 students were termed back either due to their failure in the subject and/or on account of their low attendance. He said the action was in accordance with the prescribed rules and the university’s policy.

“If students stay away from learning sessions and still get promotion to the next class, the university will be producing doctors without knowledge,” he argued.

However, the vice chancellor later issued a notification of a three-day closure of the university. It was learnt that the academic council of the university has called its emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue and the student protest.

Meanwhile, MNA Faryal Talpur took notice of unrest at the university and assigned an inquiry into the affair by a committee led by the Shaheed Benazirabad deputy commissioner.