SAC Lahore, exposes Punjab College & Caretaker Minister for Special Education

SAC Lahore held a press conference today at 1:00pm against the Punjab College and its administration for attacking their activists yesterday

The Students Action Committee (Lahore) held a short but vehement protest against the brutal assault by Punjab College’s establishment on four SAC representatives and a bystander driver.

Held outside the Press club today at 1 pm, students and sympathetic citizens stood, braving intermittent rain, raising slogans against the District Nazim Amir Mehmood and Principal Sohail Afzal, a minister for special education in the caretaker government.

They irate crowd chanted slogans against the current regime’s support for such barbaric officials, who not only relentlessly brutalized the five victims to the point of one of them losing consciousness but displayed complete disregard of the presence of police investigators at their campus Saturday evening.

The SAC (Lahore) condemns the establishment for encouraging such individuals to act as sham academics and educationists. This encouragement comes in many forms; one such point, the reluctance of the SP Muslim town police station to register an FIR against the Punjab College administration for sending guards on a public road to kidnap and torture the SAC representatives and a bystander driver.

The SAC (Lahore) will persist in working for their representatives, the teachers and students, who were harassed and will not rest till legal action has been implemented. No strong arm will threaten students, the future inheriters of the country.


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5 responses to “SAC Lahore, exposes Punjab College & Caretaker Minister for Special Education”

  1. nota Avatar

    Background (from Dawn):
    Pro-democracy students beaten up by guards
    LAHORE, Feb 2: Six more pro-democracy activists were assaulted by security guards of the Punjab Colleges Branch 7 on Saturday afternoon allegedly at the behest of college principal and Caretaker Punjab Minister for Special Education Sohail Afzal.

    When word of the incident spread, around 20 members of the Student Action Committee (SAC) along with a handful of lawyers, who were attending a protest at Nasser Bagh, went to protest outside the Muslim Town police station for what they claimed was police inaction, some of the protesters later told Dawn.

    The Muslim Town Superintendent of Police, Rana Mansoorul Haq, convinced the protesters to go to the college where they would meet the administration along with police. When the protesters reached the college, they were forcibly detained and intimidated by teachers, the protesters alleged.

    Saeda Diep, from the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies, Rahim Haque, a sociology instructor at the Punjab University, Umair Chaudry, a teaching assistant at FAST, Sheriyar, a software engineer, and Ahmed Ali, a driver, were beaten by security guards inside the college premises….

    Security guards outside the campus intercepted them and told them that the principal, Sohail Afzal, would like to see them. They agreed and were taken inside the college to meet the caretaker provincial minister. Once there, Mr Afzal remonstrated with the activists and used abusive language before calling his security guards and asking them to “teach the activists a lesson, Ms Diep narrated the sordid tale.

    She said a dozen or so security guards thereupon set about beating the group, and that she herself was manhandled and thrown to the ground. Mr Haqs nose was gushing blood, while Sheriyar fainted after 20 minutes of beating, Diep said. “At that point, I thought he was dead, she added….(contd.)

  2. maelstrom Avatar
    maelstrom

    PGC is notorious for violence against students. In febuary, 2006, a prominant student by the name of Farhan Nawaz was mercilessly beaten by Prof. M. Asim on PCBA/PICS campus. Farhan broke the middle finger of his left hand in three places. PGC expleeled him along with three students that led a token protest against this action as well as against the inability of the administration to so much as suspend the teacher. Farhan Nawaz is now expelled, and M. Asim teaches in PCBA as if nothing happened.

    Punjab Group of Colleges is a sham organization that does not deserve to exist. Sohail Afzal and Amer Mahmood are scum that need to be cleansed from our lives.

  3. Dinky Mind Avatar

    Hey, I saw you on Dawn News some days ago

  4. Faraz Avatar
    Faraz

    I don’t think, if an institute is not allowing its students to get involved in political activities others should force them to change there stance. it should be the students of the Institute that should take the initiative. and as a Alumni of this institute I can say with strong belief that students of PCBA/PICS are not interested in this. yes some time administration are so rough and regard students like a school kids.

  5. Ailee Avatar

    Dear Nota,

    There are some factual inaccuracies in your account. After getting all the details from Raheem, Deep & Umayr, we have published the full account of the two days on our blog. See: http://fastrising.blogspot.com/2008/02/with-extreme-prejudice.html

    Regards,
    Ailee