RAHIM YAR KHAN: Scores of students of Khwaja Fareed Government Postgraduate College (KFGPC) on Thursday organised a protest rally against what they said incompetence of the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) vice chancellor. The college was affiliated with the IUB until recent past.

Traffic remained suspended at city’s main Deputy Commissioner Office Chowk for a few hours when the boys and girls of various disciplines of the KFGPC reached there from their college. They chanted slogans against the IUB vice chancellor who, they said, had wasted their two academic years.

The protesters said they got admission to the KFGPC in November 2019 but the IUB held examinations in May 2020. The IUB held the examinations of its own students online and ignored them.

The institute after one year sent the date sheet for their first semester examinations in December 2020 but again, it did not take their exams and promoted their own students in the third semester. Later, the IUB administration decided to hold their exams online but due to the negligence of its examination branch, the whole system collapsed and online papers could not be held.

The students said the account number for giving papers sent by the IUB was not logged in which wasted their time. All these complaints were registered with the IUB administration but to no avail. As a result 90pc of the students were declared fail and dropped out by the IUB.

Ibrahim, Usama, Kamran, Zeeshan and other students alleged that the IUB VC had grudge with the KFGPC because the college administration had IUB RYK sub campus building at Liaquat Hostel vacated two years ago. Second, they said, the KFGPC had got new affiliation with the Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT) due to non-issuance of NOC to the college by the IUB.

Meanwhile, District Bar Association General Secretary Mirza Muhammad Amin joined the protest in solidarity with students. Amin criticised the IUB VC whose incompetence spoiled the career of the students. The DBA, he said, would fight for these students.

Later, Assistant Commissioner Riayasat Ali negotiated with the protesters and a three-member delegation of students met DC Dr Khuram Shahzad who assured them of solving their issues.

The IUB director public relations did not respond to phone call and text message when Dawn tried to seek the university version.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2021