SUKKUR: The Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday reprimanded SSP and SHO of Khairpur police for registering an FIR with sections of Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) against students of Shah Abdul Latif University for staging a protest on March 7 and 8 against hike in fees and lack of facilities on the university premises.

The double bench comprising Justices Amjad Ali Sahito and Arshad Hussain Khan passed angry remarks on finding the ATA sections cited in the case against students who, they said, were only demanding their fundamental rights on a road along the university in Khairpur.

Justice Sahito asked the SHO how could he register the case with ATA sections against the protesting students. “Do you know what is the definition of terrorism and how the Supreme Court of Pakistan has defined the term in Ghulam Hussain case?” he said angrily.

The SHO apologised to the judge and expressed his ignorance of the Supreme Court’s definition of terrorism. The judge then asked if the SHO had recovered a rocket-launcher or Kalashnikov rifle from the protesting students.

The judge repeated the same question to SSP of Khairpur and said: “How was the case with ATA sections lodged against students?”

The SSP tried to defend the police action as he replied that the protesting students had blocked all entry and exit roads to and from the university and held several hundred non-violent students hostage during the protest.

“Police have ruined lives of students for fighting against high fees and lack of fundament facilities in the university,” said the judge and added “these are your and our children. How can injustice be meted out to them!”.

The justice noted that professors had devoured most of the allocated funds and now they had started acting like kings on the premises of the university.

“The university has insufficient number of point-buses for the enrolled students and it lacked even facility for provision of clean water to students on the campus,” he said, addressing the SALU registrar.

He asked him: “What is the system of recording students’ attendance?”

The registrar replied that the attendance of students enrolled in different departments was maintained by teachers. “That is why professors blackmail students,” remarked Justice Sahito and asked as to why the university administration had not modernised the attendance system.

The SSP assured the bench during the proceedings of the case that police would conduct a thorough investigation into the case.

The bench directed the SSP to submit a report to the court on next date of hearing on April 13 after having conducted a proper enquiry.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2022