KARACHI, Feb 16: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers' Association on Wednesday announced to boycott classes on Feb 17 to register its protest against rowdy elements in educational institutions.

An emergency meeting of SPLA was held here on Wednesday at the Government College Buffer Zone that was attended by Prof Sarfraz Ali Khan, Prof Akbar Khan, Prof Muttiur Rehman, Prof Umatil Samee and other SPLA office-bearers.

They discussed the matter of continued intervention of "external elements" in the college affairs, and their anti-social activities including beating up of students, extorting "Bhatta" and giving threats of dire consequences to teachers. The meeting condemned these activities and decided to boycott the classes on Thursday.

Meanwhile, another emergency meeting of SPLA was held at the Government Commerce and Economics College, which condemned the incident of entering into college premises of some "external elements" by jumping over the wall and manhandling administration and teachers.

The meeting was told that the anti-social elements tried to pressurize the college administration and teachers and when they refused to budge in, they misbehaved with them. The meeting condemned the incident and decided to close the college for two days from Feb 17.

During both the meetings, the SPLA demanded that the government should take the anti-social elements to task and Rangers should be deployed at the colleges to provide safety to the teachers and students.

In Government S.M. Arts and Commerce College, teaching process remained suspended on Wednesday. A meeting of teachers was held at the college premises, which strongly condemned the brawl between the activists of two student bodies. The meeting demanded that the government should take necessary steps to prevent such incidents in the educational institutions.

Meanwhile, another emergency meeting of the SPLA was held with Prof Riaz Ahsan in the chair. The meeting condemned the intervention of external elements into educational institutions and students backing by some political parties.

It condemned the mishandling of teachers by student groups and appealed to the chief minister and chief secretary to provide safety to the teachers. The meeting warned that the academic process in Karachi would be suspended, if the government failed to take action against these elements. -PPI