QAU expels students, cancels degrees over Feb 27 violence

Islamabad: Over a week after its closure over a violent brawl between members of two ethnic groups, the Quaid-i-Azam University on Wednesday announced the expulsion of dozens of students and the cancellation of the degrees of many former students.

According to QAU registrar Raja Qaiser Ahmed, 79 students were punished for resorting to violence, taking the law into their own hands, disturbing the peace, and violating discipline on campus.

On February 27, members of Pashtun and Baloch student councils used batons, chains, knives, and automatic firearms against each other after heated exchanges over the Balochistan insurgency as well as loud music played in the hostels. The melee left over two dozen students injured, including two critically. The administration, which didn’t act earlier to quell the simmering ethnic tensions, was quick to announce the closure of the university for an indefinite period. It also got the hostels vacated immediately.

The police also booked around 60 students over quarrels, interference in government affairs, vandalism, harassment of girl students, murder attempts, forcible obstruction, and armed assaults. The QAU registrar justified the revocation of degrees as an "acceptable norm" in the world referring to a clause from the statutes of the University of Pennsylvania, which reads, "In order to preserve the integrity of its academic standards and the degrees it grants, the University may exercise its right to revoke a previously conferred degree."

He said the syndicate had framed the clause as a rule and that it had a peculiar context. "In previous strikes, much of campus violence was orchestrated by the passed-out students belonging to ethnic councils, which are neither legitimate entities nor democratic forums operating under any defined charter," he said. Raja Qaiser said as an academic, he believed that activism in the name of racial identity was an exclusionary and regressive construct.

"These non-representative student councils over the years have nurtured a culture of toxic masculinity at the QAU. Resorting to violence has become a ubiquitous norm. Consequently, the grandeur of this glorious institution has dwindled. I will prefer the discussion with a student body instead," he said. According to the registrar, the QAU's Syndicate recently authorised the administration to cancel the degrees of students who are found in any act of indiscipline within the university premises.

He said the decision of the syndicate was well justified. "Every time, the support of passed-out students is mustered by councils from all over Pakistan to execute the strike. Consequently, violence and indiscipline on campus are perpetrated and led by passed-out students in the vogue of impunity," he said. Raja Qaiser said being a political scientist, he could never deny or gainsay the role of democratic student associations but the decision to restore them rested with the government.