Students Protest Against Cancellation of Bahauddin Zakariya University’s Affiliation

Hundreds of students from Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Lahore campus came to the streets and staged protests against the cancellation of affiliation of their university. Protesting students blocked traffic and demanded that the higher authorities help them save the time they have spent studying at the BZU, Lahore.

The students put the blame on the university’s administrations and the Higher Education Commission (HEC). The administration allegedly set up a bogus campus of the BZU. They deceived the students into believing that the campus was officially recognised by the HEC and affiliated with the original Bahauddin Zakariya University located in Multan.

The campus has been operational for over two years. Students at the university had been paying hefty fees during the time that the campus had been operational. HEC and the BZU Multan had failed to notice that a bogus institute was using another university’s name and been publicly active for so long.

The scam became public about a week ago when the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested the former VC Khwaja Alqama of the BZU for corruption of millions of rupees. The Lahore Campus’ Director Hamza Munir has also been arrested for misuse of authority and cheating the public.

All the students who have been studying at the university are protesting that the degrees being awarded to them are not recognized by the higher education authority and all their hard work and hard-earned money has gone to waste. The HEC has been asleep over past two years to be unaware of a whole campus operating without their recognition or approval.

The students are asking for help from the HEC to recognize the university and get the people responsible behind bars. They have also appealed to CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and PM Nawaz Sharif to take notice of how fake universities have been functional for such a long duration right under the noses of the government authorities.

BZU Lahore spokesperson has told media outlets that the university is in the process of getting recognition from the HEC and that there is nothing to worry about. On the other hand, BZU Multan VC Dr Tahir Memon has said that there is no affiliation of the campus in question to begin with so all blames of revoking the affiliation are baseless.

The future of as many as five thousand students is on the line. The government should deal with the matter on urgent basis so that the students’ time is not wasted and they are refunded the fees. The students need to be transferred to other institutions or the government needs to take charge of BZU Lahore since their current administration is clearly incapable of providing adequate academic services as they were all hired for the purpose of minting money from the innocent public.

via The Nation