PESHAWAR: The teaching and non-teaching staff members of University of Peshawar on Sunday called off their strike after vice-chancellor’s assurance that culprits involved in ransacking the office of director administration would be arrested and police seniors would be transferred for not taking timely action.

The employees took the decision of ending their strike after Joint Action Committee (JAC) held a meeting with UoP pro vice-chancellor Qazi Mohammad Naeem.

Academic and administrative activities at University of Peshawar remained suspended on Friday as employees went on the strike against attack by mob on the administration block and failure of campus police to act against it.

The pro vice-chancellor informed the employees about the provincial government’s commitments regarding taking action against the attackers and police seniors performing duty on the campus, president of Peshawar University Teachers Association (Puta) Dr Uzair told Dawn.

Pro VC vows to take action against culprits; campus police chief transferred

He said that Commandant of Campus Peace Corps Noor Jamal, a BPS-18 officer, was already transferred from the campus and Mushtaq Ahmed was posted. He said that the pro vice-chancellor informed the university employees about the commitments of the minister higher education, Meena Khan Afridi, and Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Mehsud that rest of the police force including DSP, SHO and others would be transferred soon.

The PUTA president said that they had given a deadline of two weeks to authorities for fulfilling the commitments otherwise they would give another call of strike.

The pro vice-chancellor also promised that he would write a letter to government for a judicial inquiry into the incident as well as stop such incidents in future, according to a statement issued by Puta.

The university administration will also launch action against all those irrelevant people, who illegally reside in the residential quarters and hostels on the campus.

Meanwhile, Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (Fapuasa) has strongly condemned the ransacking of the office of director administration at University of Peshawar.

Unauthorised individuals occupied the office for several hours, causing chaos and damage, while the campus police failed to respond in a timely and effective manner, said a statement issued by Fapuasa here on Sunday.

Universities are meant to be sanctuaries of peace and learning, and it is the responsibility of the campus police to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and staff. The failure to respond to this attack has raised serious concerns about the overall security of the university.

“If the directorate of administration is not safe at the university, how can we expect the classrooms, offices, hostels and other facilities to be secure,” questioned the statement. The federation termed the incident as an act of sheer brutality and called for immediate intervention by both provincial and federal governments to find a permanent solution to escalating security issues on university campuses.

Fapuasa has called on chancellor, chief minister and chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to take notice of this negligence by inspector general of police.

It said that a judicial inquiry must be conducted on an urgent basis and the culprits, whose violent intentions were clearly documented in viral videos, must be brought to justice. The individuals responsible for inciting violence, calling for the murder of university staff and attacking university property should face the full force of the law, it added.

Fapuasa has strongly criticised lack of interest by Higher Education Commission (HEC) in addressing these pressing issues. “The current leadership of HEC has failed to play its role in resolving the challenges faced by universities, instead it is choosing to focus on enjoying perks and privileges,” it alleged.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2024