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Saturday, February 06, 2010
By Umar Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The Presidency has expressed its serious displeasure and ordered an investigation on Friday into the public beating of a university professor by a retired Army brigadier who has also prevented the registration of a criminal FIR by the injured professor.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar condemned the thrashing of Professor Tahir Malik of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and ordered an investigation into the incident. President Asif Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar termed the professor’s humiliation a sad incident, and condemned it. He said President Zardari had sought the report in his capacity as Chancellor of NUML.
Meanwhile, Brig (retd) Obaidullah Ranjha, Registrar NUML, who had assaulted the professor had yet to be even called in for a formal enquiry by police till the filing of this report late Friday night. The university administration is clearly supportive of him as well as he has not even been suspended or reprimanded by the university rector, who according to professor Tahir malik had been supporting all actions of Brigadier Ranjha in the past and was his “supporter and mentor”. Talking to The News, a badly hurt professor Tahir accused NUML Rector, Brigadier (retd) Aziz Ahmed of being a party to the criminal actions of his institutional colleague. He told that when he had come to report the incident to the rector right after a fuming Brg. Ranjha had beat him up black and blue, to his surprise Brig. Ranjha was already there and instead of listening to his complaint, the rector “told me to leave and was furious at bringing a bad name to the army and the university. I knew he was in on the whole plan but even then I was astounded by his behaviour”.
The victim professor’s efforts to lodge an FIR have also been frustrated till date, as the FIR is reportedly not possible without the rector’s approval as the incident had occurred inside the university premisis.
When The News contacted the Rector, he flatly refused to give any version or explanation. Sources privy to the incident say that Ranjha beat the respected professor after getting a go-ahead from the rector. When the unfortunate incident took place Thursday afternoon, the university administration initially tried to hush up the matter and went to the extent of pressurizing the head of department of International Relations, the immediate boss of the beaten professor, to write against the victim but the IR head refused to oblige. Now the rector has formed an inquiry committee but the ‘offending’ head of IR Department has been excluded from it.
As the incident sparked anger among the students community, they not only staged protests Thursday night but also announced continuing doing so on Monday in collaboration with students from other universities and demanded the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice of this unforgivable episode.
The academic staff is also resented the incident and equated it to “thrashing of all the professors.” The Senate Standing Committee on Education will take up the issue in its Monday’s meeting. The university having President of Pakistan as Chancellor and federal minister of education as pro-chancellor is intriguingly portrayed as being run by the army.
As far the Thursday’s incident is concerned, Brig (R) Ranjha beat the professor 45 minutes after heated discussion between them. The sources in the rector office says that Ranjha thrashed the professor after receiving the blessing of the rector who was also unhappy with Tahir Malik for his vocal stand against the irregularities in the university. As Ranjha came back after beating Malik black and blue, he was said to have told the rector, “Mission is over”. Moreover, when students were protesting after the incident, Brig (R) Ranjha was seen sitting inside the rector’s office.
It has been learnt that 5the rector office also pressurized Dr Sohail, Head of the IR Department and immediate boss of the victim professor, to write against Tahir Malik that he refused doing and said he was the eye-witness of the incident as his staff was a clear victim of Brig (R) Ranjha’s aggression. Dr. Sohail politely declined to comment when contacted by The News.
The inquiry committee which has been formed apparently to deflect attention from the incident is headed by NUML DG Dr Mujahid Kamran. Prof Dr Anwar Mehmood (of German Language Department) and Prof Dr Sohaila Javed (of Advance Integrated Studies Department) are the committee’s members.
The formation of inquiry committee has failed to bring any let up in the anger of students and teachers. The students kept circulating the message on Friday, as they couldn’t protest for the university holidays till Monday. The message read: “We, the students of NUML, strongly condemn the painful incident in which our respectable teacher Dr Tahir Malik was badly misbehaved with. He was also physically tortured. We strictly demand the suspension and trial of Brig Ranjha. We will not calm down until our demand is fulfilled. We invite the students of all the universities for protest on Monday so that nobody might dare to spoil the dignity of a teacher in future. We also demand Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motto notice of this brutal act, mismanagement and corruption of Brig Ranjha in university matters.” As far academic staff is concerned, they are also planning to stage strike on Monday to express solidarity with Prof Tahir Malik.
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briefs...
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