PESHAWAR, Jan 2: Teachers of Hazara University have said they would begin a hunger strike unto death on Tuesday in front of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat in protest against the alleged insolence and “corrupt practices” of the acting vice chancellor (VC).

“We have had enough humiliation at the hands of the VC,” Abdur Rehman, a lecturer at the university, told newsmen at the Peshawar Press Club. “If Daud Awan, the vice chancellor, is indispensable to the university, the NWFP governor should accept the resignations of the 60 faculty members submitted to him (governor) on Dec 3.”

Mr Rehman said the university had become “a police state” and that brute force had been used against students and faculty members who were protesting against the annual exam schedule.

He said students had even been offered 80 per cent marks in order to convince them to sit for the examination.

He said that their positive response to the appeal of the governor’s inspection team to remain calm resulted in the termination of eight faculty members by the administration, while 25 others were sent on forced leave and their entry in the campus was banned.

Dr Asghar Ali Shah, assistant professor at the Hazara University, accused the VC and his wife of nepotism and said the Awan family had been appointed to key posts in the university.

Faculty members and the administrative staff of the university, after holding a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Dec 3, had staged a protest rally that began from the press club and ended in front of the governor’s house.

They tendered their resignations to the governor and demanded the removal of Dr Awan.

M Arif, the university librarian, and Muhammad Ali Awais Khan, the financial officer of the university, presented a 26-point charge sheet against the vice chancellor, alleging abuse of power, administrative irregularities, corruption and misbehaviour with staff members. The two men also accused Dr Awan of possessing a forged PhD degree.