KARACHI: A large number of students on Thursday staged a demonstration inside the University of Karachi against fee hike, exorbitant penalty on late fee payment, non-existent transport facility, shrinking number of teaching staff, depleting infrastructure of the varsity and deteriorating security situation on the campus and warned of expanding the protest if their concerns weren’t addressed.

In a gesture of consensus, the leaders of student organisations addressed a joint press conference and questioned the performance of the university’s administration.

Hamza Alam of Islami Jamiat Talaba, Azhar Ali of Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), Ali Bhukhari of People’s Students Federation (PSF) and Waqas Meer of Punjabi Students Association (PSA) in their pressers referred to different issues which had emerged over the years and all of them remained unresolved despite repeated protests from the students.

They said that the university had again increased the semester fee and was also charging penalty at an exorbitant rate from the students who paid their semesters fee after the due date while it had failed to provide even the basic facilities.

They also raised concerns over growing number of criminal activities inside the university where number of bikes and cell phones were stolen during past few months. They announced to stage a “huge protest” outside the administration block in the coming week for their demands and said that the “campaign” would continue till their demands were fulfilled.

Meanwhile, KU Academic Council meeting approved the admission guidelines for academic year 2025. It said the admissions would be announced in the last week of October as intermediate results were not announced yet.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2024