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Thursday March 28, 2024

After losing land, let QAU preserve history

By Rasheed Khalid
March 17, 2023

Islamabad: A tweet from renowned educationist and human rights activist Dr Arfana Mallah on March 5 pointing towards a new turn in the ongoing crisis at Quaid-i-Azam University shattered me for some moments.

“Why are huts in QAU being demolished while they have long served as a source of livelihood for many families and continue to be well-liked gathering places with cheap meals for students?”

Prof Mallah's comment from Jamshoro reminded me of my City Diary I wrote in August 1984 titled "Varsity Culture in danger" when CDA issued a demolition notice to QAU Huts. Campus Community which included faculty, students, and employees with Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhoy and Dr AH Nayyar playing a leading role launched a signature campaign also against the mindless move. Those were quite tough days but sanity prevailed and the civic authority desisted from carrying out its threat. But you know this is a democratic era and some Ministers take pride in being called Professors for delivering lectures here and there. One fine day, the QAU administration headed by an Acting Vice-Chancellor prevailed upon the city administration and most of the huts (khokhas) which grew and expanded with the university were demolished except a few. Similarly, Jungle View Hut which was constructed by CDA itself was also razed to the ground. The spectre after the excavators’ operation spawned over two days was not much different from the state of higher education in the country when bureaucrats are spearheading the education sector. The Majeed Hut, still intact, very popular, and part of QAU memories in Alumnae, was among 18 CDA-approved khokhas paying token rent also though there was mushrooming growth of kiosks and dhabas in the past few decades. The university closed after an ethnic clash between Baluch and Pashtun students cannot be reopened unless there are alternative food outlets for the students whose number now runs into thousands.

The best way is to add the present site of khokhas to the QAU land and the university should replace these temporary structures with a permanent lane of shops in an aesthetic manner. The university wall should be shifted behind the huts. After all, CDA has to hand over 1749 (some say 1709) acres, 4 kanals, and 12 marlas back to QAU with demarcation. The university can earn profit as rent from this shopping arcade and manage its security also instead of further congesting the Campus by adding new shopping pockets near academic blocks.

This would preserve the QAU's old history and culture, and old students can cherish their memories and relish the foods including Crisis, Cuban Burger, Pervaizi Dish, and Emergency (all names of QAU-specific dishes). The new arrangement would reduce the number of entry points and security gates also to only five or six and help in reclaiming the usurped land under the occupation of illegal dwellers in villages inside the Campus. Seems Utopian? But CDA had admitted to giving all the territory QAU was allotted in 1967 onward and CDA admitted having received the money also. The civic body had made promises to QAU during the Bhara Kahu Bypass crisis to give it back all the land. The new Vice-Chancellors having experience with many institutions of higher education up his sleeves may explore its possibility. Time to prove his mettle!