Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A few kilometres away from Parliament House and Supreme Court (SC), one of the country’s best ranked universities, the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) experiences deplorable conditions as its students are compelled to sit on the floor in order to attend classes as there are no allotted classrooms in the Earth Sciences Department of the university.

Some footage shows a group of around 20 students sitting on the floor, trying to concentrate on what their teacher has to say with the help of a whiteboard only.

The obtained information revealed that the pictured group of students was enrolled in BS Earth Sciences of fourth semester. The entire classrooms of the department were locked down allegedly by its chairperson.

Insiders say the students don’t have other option but to request their teacher to resume classes anywhere or at any location of the university regardless of the circumstances.

In an application, the students pleaded to an assistant professor of the department to take classes at any cost.

“We are not concerned with the location but with the class. We are ready to take classes anywhere whether it is DES, BS block, any lawn in the university or somewhere else”, they stated in the application, requesting that “we can’t set our degrees and grades on fire due to shortage of educational resources, while we are willingly agreeing to take classes anywhere you want”.

The students informed their teacher that they have been asked by the administration that June 29 was the deadline to end semester. The administration, the students said, made it clear that to resume classes inside the building was not possible. However, as per notification, the tenure of classes was extended to July 6 by the QAU administration.

QAU Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Ashraf said in a written statement, “A group of faculty members in the Earth Sciences Department are spreading news that they were not being allowed to hold classes in the department, whereas in reality, their classes officially ended on June 29, 2018.”

The statement claimed that “show-cause notices had already been issued against the faculty members who had made this complaint. These are some of the same faculty members who had earlier been on strike and had not held classes for a number of weeks. Their complaint is frivolous since almost all classrooms are lying vacant, so there is no dearth of space. Their activity is simply a continuation of their earlier attempt to hinder the smooth functioning of the administration.”

Published in Daily Times, July 7^th 2018.