Daily Times

LAHORE: Students of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Lahore Campus and the Superior University held protests outside their campuses and blocked Canal Road and Raiwind Road, respectively on Monday.

Holding banners and placards, students of BZU once against protested against the BZU administration, other departments concerned for not resolving their degree issue. They demanded the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and the Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) to play their role in resolving their key issue pending for the last couple of years.

Students said that they were being treated as “terrorists” by the varsity administration and the Punjab government. Still the HEC, HED, PHEC and BZU Multan had not done anything for the students, they said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the BZU Lahore Campus was established under the public-private partnership.

The BZU vice chancellor at that time, Dr Khawaja Alqama awarded legal status to the BZU Lahore Campus but the campus management remained unable to get the NOC and accreditation from the HED and the Higher Education Commission.

Since its inception, the legality of the campus remains controversial. However, a new controversy surfaced after the arrest of VC Khawaja Alqama by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the charges of embezzlement.

On December 2, the BZU Multan in an advertisement asked students of BZU Lahore Campus to get enrolled at the BZU Multan before December 20 along with the a demand draft of Rs 1,000. The advertisement further stated that the students would be enrolled in a semester of continuing programmes /degrees as determined by the BZU based on the results submitted by each student.

The protest also caused massive traffic jams on Canal Road and adjourning roads for several hours and long queues were observed on both sides of roads. Traffic jam was observed on Main Boulevard Gulberg, Ferozepur Road, Jail Raod, Wahdat Road, Main Boulevard Gulberg, University Road and several others.

Meanwhile, students of Pharmacy Department of the Superior University also hold a protest and blocked Raiwind Road for several hours against the varsity over not issuing degrees. Students were holding banners and placards and chanted slogans against the varsity administration and the Pharmacy Department head over his alleged rude behaviour with students. Later, students of SU dispersed peacefully.