HYDERABAD, Dec 12: A large number of Sindh University students marched from the State Bank building upto the press club here on Monday in protest against rustication of 18 students last month.

They warned to expand the scope of their protest if the rustication orders and cases registered against them were not withdrawn.

The student leaders accused the university administration of corruption and said retired bureaucrats had been appointed in the university to mint money. They further said that sub-standard food was being supplied to the hostellers.

Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi also condemned rustication, registration of cases and arrest of some of their colleagues when the protesting students met him on Sunday evening.

The STP chairman held the university administration responsible for clashes at the campus and said the management was interested only in protecting its own interests. He said that he wanted an end to hooliganism and display of arms at the university and other educational institutions but he would never support a ban on student politics.

Talking to Students Action Committee of the university,

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz Chairman Basheer Khan Qureshi

also condemned the university action. The action, he added, would never be supported.

He warned that JSQM activists, along with students, would demonstrate on the Super Highway if the rustication orders were not withdrawn.

The university administration had expelled the students on charges of being involved in incidents of firing, boycott of semester examinations, holding of sit-ins and damaging the university property.

A few months ago, Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazeer A. Mughal had convened a conference of nationalist parties and intellectuals to seek their help in maintaining discipline at the campus. A monitoring committee was also constituted during the conference.

The conference and the committee had reportedly authorised the university administration to take action against unruly students.