LAHORE, Oct 11: The Islami Jamiat Tulaba on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration by blocking the Khayaban-i-Jamia Punjab to traffic for almost five hours against the expulsion of its three activists from the Punjab University.

The students stopped some buses in front of the PU New Campus main gate that choked the traffic on Canal Road, Garden Town Road, Wahdat Road and other adjacent arteries.

The activists also staged protest demonstrations on The Mall, Shah di Khoi Road and the road leading to Thokar Niaz Beg. All these roads as well as adjacent passages remained blocked for five hours during which the commuters faced severe problems getting stuck in the blockade.

Governor Khalid Maqbool and Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi took serious notice of the blockade of roads and inconvenience caused to the commuters. They asked the university administration and the police to take stern action against the protesters.

Many students claimed that they could not reach university in time and missed their examinations held in the afternoon. The IJT protests continued from 11.30am to 4.30pm.

The IJT activists, led by Students Action Committee president Chaudhry Basharat, said the university had expelled three Punjabi department students on the charge of highlighting vice-chancellor’s corruption and following the ideology of Pakistan. The students also chanted slogans against the PU vice-chancellor and registrar and demanded that the chief justice should take notice of the corruption.

Mr Basharat alleged that the VC had spent nearly Rs9 million on the construction work done in the VC House during the last seven years. The university, he alleged, was awarding contracts to its favourites and had given 52 kanals to the City District Government Lahore. And it was victimising the students for speaking against the corruption.

The IJT activists demanded that the university should reinstate the three students by Thursday (today) otherwise the students would hold protest demonstrations all over the province.

Meanwhile, the PU administration took a strong notice of the demonstration by a group of students who blocked the roads around the PU New Campus.

Talking to Dawn, PU registrar Prof Dr Muhammad Naeem Khan said the university’s disciplinary and advisory committees and the Hall Council were in session to take strict action against the protesters. He said the security officials had been asked to identify the protesters and the police also were trying to identify them through the footage recorded by electronic media personnel.

“The PU administration will definitely take a stern action against the protesters and show no leniency to anyone for disrupting peace on the campus,” he asserted.

Expressing apology to the citizens of Lahore for facing severe problems in Ramazan, the registrar said the university administration would not bow to the pressure tactics being used by the IJT activists. It would not reinstate those students who had been expelled on disciplinary grounds.

The registrar said the top cadre of opposition was backing a handful of students to create unrest on the university campus. He said the Jamiat activists organised the protest in a bid to show their strength to the new comers who started taking classes on Wednesday.

Prof Khan said the citywide protest demonstration and blocking of road was also a big challenge for the government to take the accused to task.