The doors are locked and entry is not allowed…even if you are a faculty member, you cannot get in for your classes and teaching assignments as it is second day of students’ protest in the Women Campus of International Islamic University, Islamabad. This recent protest is widely reported in national dailies and news channels. We can even see what students are really up to and think about soaring strike culture at IIUI. Is it unusual that students went on strike in an educational institution in Pakistan? Of course, not! We have a plethora of evidence that every now and then students stage such demonstration somewhere in Pakistan and at times they are bloody cool! However what is unusual in case of IIUI is its punching strike rate which we have observed over the last couple of years. If you don’t recall, we can give you some flashback in the form of pictures, videos and news coverage. Enjoy, if you are not among the big bosses!What makes our students to go on strike is a million dollar question for IIUI administration. What else we can do for you chaps, they monger every time whenever a news item pops up. To them, IIUI is a complete institution by all means: competent faculty staff, visionary leadership, shining students, superb infrastructure, efficient management and on the top of every thing, moderate and always on cutting edge! So what goes wrong every now and then that some trouble makers start marching around, shouting meaningless and shameful slogans such as “water in hostels”, “books in libraries”, “good teachers in classes”, “over stuffed hostels”, “increased fee” etc. etc.
We’ll ask them to remain cool and co
mfortable. Students are notoriously immature and they never comprehend how prideful our President is when it comes to his achievements within very short span of time. If you really want to feel that sense of pride then go through the recent interview of our President on Dawn’s educational pages. It is indeed a much revealing piece. In addition to expose the decaying quality of Dawn’s journalism, this interview clearly tells us that our president could be proud for 4 times just in one session of interview. Not only this, he could take pride at least for 2 times in the same interview and this obviously for what he has done for IIUI! He is perhaps in run for this year’s Presidential Pride of Performance Award! All the best Dr. sahib!
mfortable. Students are notoriously immature and they never comprehend how prideful our President is when it comes to his achievements within very short span of time. If you really want to feel that sense of pride then go through the recent interview of our President on Dawn’s educational pages. It is indeed a much revealing piece. In addition to expose the decaying quality of Dawn’s journalism, this interview clearly tells us that our president could be proud for 4 times just in one session of interview. Not only this, he could take pride at least for 2 times in the same interview and this obviously for what he has done for IIUI! He is perhaps in run for this year’s Presidential Pride of Performance Award! All the best Dr. sahib! Unfortunately students and the most of the faculty do not share this sense of pride and they are highly critical of what is happening on campus. Isn’t it a matter of subjective interpretation? One thing is for sure that Dr. Siddiqi’s tenure as president witnessed unprecedented strikes and agitations on Campus. By the way the interview reveals that the “visionary president” lacks some vision when he narrates the history of IIUI (He says: “We started with the faculty of Islamic Studies with the strength of just 40 students,” whereas we all know that faculty of Islamic studies (was there ever a faculty with this name?) was not the pioneering faculty of IIUI; Dr. Siddiqui was then “proud of the Department of Social Science which has been established under his enterprising aegis”. Yet another sheer misrepresentation of facts! He does not even know about certain basic statistics of IIUI and says “We are lucky to have four PhDs teaching in the faculty of Engineering”. In fact IIUI hosts seven (7) PhDs in the Faculty of Engineering & Technology: http://my.iiu.edu.pk/Faculties/EngineeringTechnology/FacultyStaff/tabid/79/Default.aspx )
If you really want to know that why it is all happening then there are simple answers. Answers that do not need Socratic wisdom but of course, call for invoking your ordinary prudence! Our problem is maladministration and mismanagement. Despite all rhetoric about power decentralization, we are an extremely enclosed body-corporate where decision making is centralized and irrational. Whatever notional powers are devolved, they are among the few handpicked and largely incompetent people who ultimately create these situations for the President. Let’s take the example of this strike. Who decided about the increase of hostel fee and how that decision was reached? Like all other cases and after students’ agitation and strike, the decision was withdrawn in the name of clarification and misconception. Our familiar buzz words at IIUI! Every time after facing music, our President delicately shifts the whole blame to his subordinate authority and ironically that authority cannot even utter a word: Et tu, Brute?
We sincerely believe that strike culture is merely a tip of an iceberg of maladministration. It is high time for IIUI administration to come out of its boastful pride and think about the ground realities. Such matters cannot be resolved with poorly drafted counter press releases.
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