ISLAMABAD, April 15: The former principal of the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) Girls College, Islamabad, Ms Rabia Noor, has expressed shock over the manhandling of protesting students of the college and called for resolving their problems.

Ms Noor accused the Minister of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) administration of using delaying tactics in awarding degrees to the students, removing her from her post and launching a campaign against her.

In a statement issued here Friday she said: “I was shocked to read in newspapers that the students of OPF College, who were demanding their degrees, were publicly beaten, manhandled and humiliated by the police, while none of the [college] administration tried to protect or save them”.

It is even more shocking that the senior officials were blatantly misinforming and concealing facts from the media as well as from the students, she maintained.

She said it is but natural that the students after putting in years of hard work and paying heavy fees expect their degrees which they are being denied.

Clarifying her position and placing the facts on record, she said that based on the excellent academic standards, faculty, financial health and infrastructure of the college, the defunct University Grants Commission (UGC) after a thorough inspection and scrutiny for over a year, issued a ‘no-objection certificate’ (NOC) to the college and gave it a degree-awarding institution status.

The former principal said an application with all the documents and proposed charter were submitted to the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis in April 2004, requesting it to forward this to the law ministry and the federal cabinet.

This process should not have taken more than six to eight weeks to be finalized, she maintained.

Ms Noor said, despite repeated written and verbal requests and reminders the ministry did not forward the application to the law ministry. While the efforts to obtain degree-awarding status were being pursued, the registration charges and processing for the conferment of the degree by the Iqra University, as was originally promised, was finalized.

“The Minister of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis and OPF pursued vendetta against me publicly and persistently. They removed me from my office, placed me on the ECL and started a malicious and mala fide defamation campaign, levelling false charges of corruption and misadministration”, she alleged.

“While settling their scores with me they jeopardized the future of the students because they feared the college would slip out of their control and the university would thrive as an independent institution. Therefore they kept placing obstacles in the award of degrees”, she further said.

To save the careers of the students who are only demanding their just right, Ms Noor demanded that the charter which is lying at the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis for the last one year, should be forwarded to the law ministry without any further delay. As 99 per cent work has already been completed, it should not take very long to finally obtain the degree awarding status. At the same time the case which is lying with Iqra University may be expedited, she added.

“An impression has been falsely created by the OPF staff and the minister as if I had started the degree programme on my own and as if I had run away with the fees”, she said, adding the truth is that the programme was started on the directives of the board of directors of the college and the fees deposited in the OPF bank account.

“I did not flee; my life was threatened and I was forced to leave the country for my physical safety and then my name was placed on the ECL”, she said.