By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday instructed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the vice-chancellor of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, to take all necessary measures to prevent their harassment and racial profiling on university campuses.
According to a press release issued by the President’s Secretariat, Alvi met Baloch students earlier this month at the Aiwan-i-Sadr and heard their grievances. QAU vice chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali, Additional Interior Secretary Muhammad Ayub Chaudhary and advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir were present there as well.
The meeting came a day after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) formed a commission headed by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to address the grievances of Baloch students. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had passed the orders while hearing a petition filed by rights activist Mazari-Hazir against the harassment of students protesting in Islamabad last month over disappearance of their missing colleague, Hafiz Baloch.
On April 8, Justice Minallah sought a report from the president on the grievances of Baloch students.
In a statement issued Friday, Dr Alvi observed that Pakistan was facing a “unique situation” and the resurgence of terrorist activities was a cause of concern.
“He added that counter-terrorism efforts are essential to our peace and existence but they must be carried out with utmost care and balance so as to not isolate or profile any segment of our population, particularly the students of Balochistan,” it stated.
Dr Alvi also said that when it came to Baloch students, there was a “general sense of deprivation or isolation” and it was, therefore, incumbent on all educational institutions to take more care to address such sentiments.
He stressed on the development of a proactive programme of activities and debates within the student community to “address feelings of deprivation among Baloch students”.
“The president further asked the VC QAU to diligently monitor any activity which may be a cause of concern to the Baloch students at QAU and to verify the credentials of visitors in order to check the impersonification (sic) and maligning of law enforcement agencies,” the statement added.
Separately, the IHC directed the interior secretary Thursday to develop a mechanism to “stop what is happening with Baloch students” and ensure that their ethnic profiling is ended.
During the hearing, Justice Minallah had remarked that these students were the future. “Should the courts close their eyes to these human rights violations?” he asked. “Does the cabinet not know what is happening in the country? Weren’t those who are in the cabinet [now] going to them yesterday? Don’t they know?”
It is the job of the political leadership in a democratic society to find a solution, he had observed.
The directions were issued after security agencies picked up Bebgar Imdad from the hostel of the Punjab University, purportedly in connection with the Karachi University (KU) suicide blast case.
Imdad, a seventh semester student of English Literature in Numl, Islamabad, and a native of Kech, was visiting his relative in Hostel No 7.
On Wednesday morning, PU security guards and other security agencies bundled him into a truck.
One of the students on the condition of anonymity told media that the security agencies suspected that Imdad might be involved in the recent attack in which three Chinese nationals were killed while four others injured outside the KU’s Confucius Institute.
He said they tried to resist the arrest of Imdad but the personnel told them to stay away and that if the suspect did not have any involvement in the blast, he would be released by evening. By the evening, he said, the security agencies did not release the student.
