PESHAWAR, Feb 21: The girl students of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Town campus, were disappointed when they were stopped at the eleventh hour from holding a ‘welcome and farewell’ party.

The sudden cancellation of the event by the vice-chancellor shocked the students to an extent that some of them literally burst into tears.

The students, who with the support and permission of teachers had planned to hold a ‘welcome and farewell’ party, a regular event in all educational institutions, said that they were shocked when they were stopped from holding the event.“We raised about Rs70,000 for the party. We arranged music system and food for about 200 students but all has gone to waste,” said a student, who seemed disheartened at the unexpected decision of the university administration to forbid them to hold the event.

The students said that every girl donated about Rs400 and some even paid for their friends, who could not afford the amount, for arranging the party but Vice-chancellor Prof Farhana Jehangir stopped them from holding the function.

The students of microbiology, informatics and chemistry departments had been planning the function for about three months. They were waiting anxiously for the event after taking their examinations recently. They had made all arrangements with the help of teachers.

The students said that the teachers were also faced with an embarrassing situation when they were told that they could not hold the party.

The vice-chancellor, when contacted, said that it was a university for women but the girls had invited DJs (boys) for playing music that’s why she did not allow the event.

“We allow music and holding such parties but can’t allow men (to participate in the function),” she said, adding that students were giving wrong statements as holding a party was allowed but they had to take permission and play music only on a tape-recorder.

The students, on the other hand, said the event was exclusively for girls and students had sent back the DJs (boys) as they had decided to play the music on their own. The parents of several students said that there was dearth of recreational activities for girls in the provincial capital as it was always in the grip of terrorism.

“I got a call from my daughter, who was crying. I got worried because she had gone to enjoy with her classmates but she was sad,” said a parent.