KARACHI, Oct 23: A protest against Karachi University’s admission policy took a serious turn on Thursday when groups of students forced their way into classrooms and disrupted academic activities early in the morning. This led to chaos later in the day when non-teaching staff stopped work in protest against the alleged thrashing of an employee by a student group on Wednesday.

According to sources, members of the Student Alliance – an amalgamation of several student groups mostly backed by major political parties – disrupted academic activities, harassed and forced students to leave classes. While many teachers did not take classes in view of the law and order situation, one of the teachers was reportedly verbally abused by a student at the applied chemistry department.

The Rangers posted there reportedly refrained from responding to complaints and arrived at the chemistry department after a delay of two hours.

It was the second day of the protest by the Student Alliance. The protesting students were demanding an open merit system and withdrawal of the proposal for pre-entry tests. A day earlier, some students, allegedly backed by a political party, beat up a non-teaching staff member at the enrolment section for not accepting his degree examination form.

Talking to Dawn, pro-vice-chancellor Dr Ikhlaq Ahmed said the vice-chancellor had ordered an inquiry into the incident of verbal abuse of a woman teacher. “We have been holding meetings since morning to normalize the situation. The student who allegedly beat up a non-teaching staff member in the enrolment section has been identified and will be issued a show-cause notice. However, the student who abused a teacher has not been identified and the vice-chancellor has ordered an inquiry into the incident.”

On the ‘silent role’ of the Rangers, he said the force had been directed by the vice-chancellor to act swiftly on complaints. “The force has now been directed to take quick action on any complaint of wrongdoings and pick up miscreants immediately. The force has also been authorised to detain offenders at their campus office, hold an investigation and lodge an FIR.”

The student groups, he said, had also been informed about this development and subsequently warned.

About concerns over the admission policy, Director of the Admission Committee Prof Dr Saleem Shehzad said the policy had been in place for over seven years and it was beyond logic why student groups were protesting against it now.

On the open merit system, he said: “Contrary to Punjab which has many general universities in the public sector, the KU is the only public sector university serving the most populous city of the country. Students passing their matric exams from the Karachi board are given preference. Then, seats are offered to students from the interior of Sindh and after that to other provinces.”

Terming students’ protest over the admission policy “completely unjustified”, he said the academic council had approved the criteria after much debate and no change would be made on demand and in haste. “Every university has its own rules and regulations. The academic council in a recent meeting had put on hold the matter of beginning pre-entry tests for bachelor classes, but students are protesting on this issue, too,” he said.

“The allocated seats for Northern Areas and Fata candidates have been increased from seven to 14 this year. Also, 10 seats have been reserved for Balochistan on the Higher Education Commission’s recommendation and there are seven seats for Azad Jammu and Kashmir.”

Talking to Dawn, the general secretary of the KU employees’ union, Mohammad Farid, said that they would continue their “peaceful protest” on Friday against the harassment and pressure tactics by students. Commenting on Wednesday’s incident, he said: “A student came with an incomplete form and forced the staff to accept it. Upon refusal, the student threatened the employees and later arrived there with a group and beat up four employees.”

“On Thursday, these student forced employees to close the library. We can’t work under such threats and pressure. The university must provide us with security. There is no strike by us tomorrow, but we will record our peaceful protest.”

Tufail Ahmed of the People’s Students Federation, however, denied the allegation and said that no law and order situation was created during the first two days of protest by the Student Alliance and it was only when the non-teaching staff started agitation that academic activities came to a halt on Thursday.

“The examination section doesn’t have proper staff to help students. Also, they extort money from students to accept forms. It was the last day for the submission of degree exam forms and when the employees didn’t entertain some candidates, a situation became tense. Yes, there were some verbal attacks, but no employee was beaten up.”

He also denied involvement of students in a ‘forced boycott’ and claimed that students voluntarily left classes in support of their demands. “No student was involved in wrongdoings whatsoever. Our demand for an open merit policy is just, and nowhere in the country such a system exists,” he said, adding that the protest would continue on Friday.

Condemning the violent incidents and forced boycott, Dr Abid Hasnain of the Karachi University Teachers’ Society said it was very unfortunate. “We denounce these incidents in the strongest words and feel that they are a reflection of society’s deteriorating moral values. The administration must take punitive action against the offending students so academic activities could continue in a peaceful manner.”

The Imamia Students Organisation, Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba, Northern Students Organisation are also part of the Student Alliance.