KARACHI, Aug 22: Students and teachers at various city educational institutions, on Friday, observed black day to protest against certain incidents of lawlessness in the educational institutions and attack on the principal of Government College of Commerce and Economics.

On the call given by Sindh Professors and Lecturers’ Association (SPLA), complete strike was observed on Friday at all the colleges of Karachi

The college teachers boycotted the classes and also stopped examining papers etc.

Protest demonstrations were held at various institutions, while the students wore black arm-bands and boycotted the classes to lodge their protest over the incident.

The strike call was given at an emergent meeting of the SPLA after the incident of firing at in which the Principal Prof Aslam Khan was attacked and injured by certain elements, said to be outsiders, who had also forcibly occupied the van of female students.

The SPLA stated that it had submitted its view point on the incident, along with suggestions to improve the situation, about two weeks earlier.

The education minister had assured that he would resolve the issue politically, the association said.

The SPLA had also apprised the City Nazim of the situation and had apprehended that such incidents might take place after summer vacations, it stated.

Meanwhile, a delegation of SPLA met with the Sindh Education Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat and apprised him of the unrest among the teachers in the wake of the firing incident.

A SPLA statement on Friday said that Mr Marwat assured the delegation that the chief minister would be approached in this connection.

He said that there would be a code of conduct for the educational institutions and the political parties would be asked to adhere to this, the statement said.

The participants of these meetings expressed their resolve to cleanse the educational institutions of the political elements.

The City Nazim had constituted a committee headed by EDO, Higher Education, to remove political slogans, banners and photographs from the educational institutions and prohibit such activities in future, but with no results, the SPLA deplored.

The college teachers on Friday also held a meeting to evolve future strategy and demanded arrest of those involved in attacking the principal.

The teachers also demanded ban on entry of outsiders in the colleges, besides removal of photographs of political leaders and slogans etc.

The College Principals Association (CPA), while condemning the firing incident, in a statement said that a meeting of CPA was held on Friday to discuss the situation arising out of the incident.

It said the meeting also called for elimination of external interference in the city colleges and to make the existing ban on student political organisations, in educational institutions, more effective.

The meeting also demanded that police and Ranger pickets be set up at all the colleges of the city. —PPI/APP