THIS is apropos the hue and cry over the report about girls not being allowed to wear jeans and tights in the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST).

The report had been quite misleading. Let me start on from the beginning when Nust took a not-so-humble start with its headquarters on Tameezuddin Road, Rawalpindi Cantt, and its campuses in Rawalpindi, Risalpur and Karachi.

The discipline was exemplary, the quality of education unparalleled and grooming of mili -specs (a term used for anything made up to the topmost specifications).

There was a proper dress code (read uniform) for both male and female students on the campus and nobody seemed to be bothered much by the idea.

A lot of effort was channeled to constructive work, research and innovation which would otherwise have gone down the drain by thinking endlessly about appearance.

The big heads sat down and thought of expanding the school of learning so that more and more young blood can be injected to gain excellence in the fields of science and technology.

NUST Business School (NBS) started from meagre settings at Nust headquarters, while NUST Institute of Information and Technology (NIIT) took birth from a plaza-at-rent in Chaklala Scheme-III, Rawalpindi, now one of the busiest commercial centres of the city.

In the meanwhile, a whole sector H-12 was purchased from the CDA for a purpose-built campus of NUST.

As the concrete kept pouring and structures started to erect, various schools started to migrate from their erstwhile locations to H-12 (NUST City), the enrollment skyrocketed enormously.

Meanwhile, NUST tried to keep pace with the upcoming lot of A level students who thought that life would be even more lax than their previous institutes.

It is only in the business school that students – both male and female – had never been allowed to attire themselves in informal dress.

Standard dress code for females is shalwar-qamiz with a dupatta (which need not be over the head) and for males, it is dress pants and dress shirt with dress shoes.

This was put into practice to ensure that business graduates of NBS be fully acquainted with the corporate culture and hence do not feel it difficult to adjust. And NUST graduates have proven this in the places they work.

No other college of the institute has any such dress restriction at NUST City. Hence, the reason why fine was levied can safely be attributed to the young lot being unaware of the rules of the place instead of some Taliban mindset taking root at the institute that has always been at the top of the list at national level.

Besides, the ‘outrage’ in the ‘more liberal citizens of the country’ be contained and vented to some useful direction.

Badmouthing an institute of the stature of National University of Sciences and Technology without being fully aware of the facts and accusing everything modest to the Taliban and mullahs is itself not coincident with the liberal values.

HASAN JAVED GOREJA
(Ex- student)
Rawalpindi