LAHORE, March 7: For the first time, a police post is being set up at the Punjab University to “maintain law and order” on the campus.

Sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the PU administration had submitted a request to the IGP in this regard and the police post would be set up on the new campus shortly.

They said vice-chancellor Arshad Mahmood, who earlier was reluctant, had finally given a go-ahead to the plan on the pressure of Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool — the chancellor of the varsity.

They said the decision to establish a police post at the varsity was actually taken in a meeting held at the Governor’s House with Khalid Maqbool in the chair a couple of months ago. IGP Ziaul Hasan and vice-chancellor Arshad Mahmood also had attended it.

Sources said the decision had been taken to maintain law and order on the campus, besides stopping the political activities of a student wing. They said the incidents in which the student wing had challenged the writ of the varsity forced the governor to take this step.

At least on two occasions, they said, the student wing in the recent past had caused embarrassment for the administration. One was holding of its annual book fair despite a ban by the varsity syndicate and the other was damaging the VC office in reaction to the expulsion of some of its activists from the varsity, they added.

Besides, the administration does not feel secure when the student wing holds demonstrations outside the VC office every now and then.

It may, however, be mentioned that on the directives of President Pervez Musharraf, the Punjab government had banned all activities of political student wings in the educational institutions in the province in 2004. Since then, the PU administration has been finding ways to enforce the ban on the campus.

A senior faculty member told this reporter that if the decision of setting up a police post on the campus was implemented, it would be very unfortunate for its environment. He said there had been a number of occasions in the past, especially in the regime of Nawaz Sharif, when such an action seemed inevitable.

He said the police post would not help stop the student wing from holding its activities rather it would create tension on the campus. He said the PU was the largest general varsity of Asia and following the University of Engineering and Technology in this regard would do no good to the PU administration.

Registrar Prof Dr Naeem Khan denied setting up of a police post on the campus. However, he said the varsity had this option but would only implement it when required.

“The varsity is promoting healthy student activities on the campus and will not spare those indulging in politics”, he said.