MULTAN City News

Seraiki, Punjabi won’t be taught at Emerson College Multan!
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: The aspirants seeking admission in Govt Emerson College on Monday protested against the administration for forcing them not to adopt regional languages Punjabi and Seraiki as compulsory or optional subjects. The majority of students prefer Punjabi and Seraiki languages balancing their marks sheet and adopt subjects with the combination of others in BA (third year).
It is surprising to note the Emerson College is the first institution in Multan to start classes in Punjabi in 1975. The college also started classes in Seraiki in 2,000 after receiving a bulk of admission forms. Punjabi as a subject has been popular for the last 40 years and Seraiki for 15.
Shahzad Ali reached the college to submit his admission form and preferred Punjabi as an optional subject but the admission clerk asked him deleting it.
“The clerk removed Punjabi subject from my admission form by his own choice and asked me preferring Persian or other subjects instead of Punjabi and Seraiki”, he said in a very disappointing tone.
“In fact, the college administration has strictly ordered us discouraging admissions in Punjabi and Seraiki languages in a bid to send some senior faculty members in surplus pool on the grounds of low admissions,” an administration staffer confided The News on the condition of anonymity.
The Seraikistan Qaumi Council president, Zahoor Ahmed Dhareja, strongly condemned the move against the Supreme Court verdict that directed to promote local languages. He warned staging demonstrations against the biased attitude and demanded Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the issue.
He underlined need for the promotion of mother tongue in education curricula.
Fresh admission seekers said when they came to deposit fee vouchers the staffers forced them to remove Punjabi and Seraiki from admission forms. The Emerson College has removed Punjabi and Seraiki language departments from the prospectus and the college administration refused providing admissions in desired subjects, they added.
They observed that the Emerson College was one of the Multan’s oldest and well-reputed institutions but it had disappointed a large numbers of students.
The final date for admissions has lapsed on Monday and the college. The News interviewed the candidates who were refused to opting admissions in Punjabi and Seraiki languages.
The Emerson college faculty sources said the administration had discouraged more than 100 students getting admissions in the desired subjects.
The 2015-2016 prospectus offered admissions in 17 subjects except Punjabi and Seraiki. The prospectus has offered admissions only in Chemistry, English, Economics, Education, Geography, History, Physical Education, Islamiat, Information Technology, International Relations, Mathematics, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Statistics, Urdu and Zoology.
The Emerson College had admitted more than 100 students only in Punjabi and refused numbers of students due to shortage of seats last year. The massive numbers of students were divided into two sections for better environment.
The subjects of Punjabi and Seraiki are taught in Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi divisions with massive response from students. The Punjab government had recruited Seraiki lecturers in to promote the language, culture and heritage.
When Emerson College Principal Malik Abdul Jabbar was contacted, he rejected the reports of refusing admissions in Punjabi and Seraiki languages. He said students did not prefer Punjabi and Seraiki by their own choice.
When he was told that the students preferred Punjabi and Seraiki in all the southern Punjab colleges and asked about removing the two subjects from the college prospectus, he did not respond to the queries.