Students, teachers irked by road closures at UoP

PESHAWAR: The management of the University of Peshawar (UoP) has adopted highly unusual policies in the name of security and administrative control, which have created serious hardships for students, faculty and residents of the sprawling campus.

For several months, the university’s main gate at the Jamrud Road has remained closed and the traffic has been diverted to other gates on a distant Rahatabad Road. Within the campus - which covers nearly 25 square kilometers and houses several universities, centres of excellence, colleges, schools and residential facilities - several routes have either been permanently blocked or re-routed.

These decisions, widely criticized as impractical, have made daily life miserable for students, teachers, parents and others living or working inside the walled campus. Long traffic jams on Jamrud Road, one of the city’s busiest arteries, have become a routine occurrence due to the closure of the main university gate. The once-iconic entrance of the university now presents a dismal sight, littered with piles of construction material and broken walls of a dismantled police checkpoint.

Despite repeated protests by students and other stakeholders, the policies introduced by a director administration whose very appointment is alleged as illegal have remained unchanged. The administration controversially appointed Professor Badshah Munir, an Urdu faculty member, as director administration, in violation of the university act and statutes which prohibit the appointment of teaching staff to administrative posts.

The Road No. 2, a key artery within the campus, was converted into a one-way, while another road near the Pakistan Study Centre almost a kilometre away from the new entrance was designated as the exit route.

Several parking facilities inside the university were shut down. For instance, the parking area outside the vice-chancellor’s secretariat was dismantled and left unattended, which not only created inconvenience for commuters but also damaged the beauty of the historic building.

Eyewitnesses say the director administration was often seen at campus squares personally attempting to manage traffic with a walkie-talkie in hand. His interventions have occasionally led to tense encounters.

This correspondent talked to Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Jauhar Ali about the situation a few days back. The vice-chancellor acknowledged the gravity of the situation and instructed officials to convene a single-point agenda meeting to resolve the matter. Standing beside him, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Qazi Naeem tied to defended the university decision, saying it was taken in light of security concerns.

Campus Police Commandant Mushtaq Ali has previously argued that roads inside the university were heavily used by residents from surrounding areas and that restricting access has helped manage congestion and improve campus security.However, the situation on the ground tells a different story. The closures have caused severe disruption both inside and outside the campus. Observers argue that given the presence of a full-fledged campus police platoon led by a commandant, a large security force of the university and private guards hired by several institutions, effective measures could have been implemented instead of shutting down gates and routes.

With such extensive security resources in place, the university administration is left with no excuse for closure of gates and roads instead of ensuring effective monitoring at the entrances.