Shrinking space

Universities should be open to dissent and critical thought. These are the spaces where we hope to instil in the next generation the virtues of tolerance and inquiry. Unfortunately, campuses today are inflicted by the same fear and narrow-mindedness as the rest of the country. Last week, Ammar Ali Jan, an assistant professor at Punjab University was summarily fired without pay for being “needlessly vocal”. Jan, in the rich tradition of some of our best academics, is also a progressive activist. In a country where the blame for declining academic standards is often placed on well-educated individuals leaving the country in a brain drain, Jan is one of the few who have chosen to sacrifice a better salary to work at a public-sector university. He has been harassed in the past too at the university – for the crime of advocating non-violent protest.

Punjab University is home to student groups that have shut down the campus and used violence without punishment but the presence of an instructor who campaigns for human rights could not be permitted. This shows the intellectual morass in which too many of our universities have sunk. The university has responded to Ammar’s students’ protests against his termination with allegations ranging from calling Jan ‘anti-state’ to arranging ‘suspicious study circles’. It would be odd in any part of the world for a teacher or professor to be fired for doing what he is supposed to do: teaching young minds to think; instilling in them the love for knowledge; and inspiring them to see learning as a choice not a chore. The idea that all this is somehow against the principles this state and society want its young to hold is disturbing. It is also true that in today’s Pakistan, such allegations are highly irresponsible, if not malicious.

Punjab University has now set the precedent that anyone who deviates from the norm will be punished. This reflects the general intolerance that infects our society. We do not want uncomfortable truths to be heard nor any deviation from the status quo. The case of Mashal Khan in Mardan showed the lethal consequences of following a herd mentality. Our campuses have long been in decline, starting with the ban on student unions which ended up only empowering armed groups and stifling debate. We are now reaping the consequences of that as anyone of a progressive hue is told to either shut up or face the consequences. Ammar Ali Jan is only the latest victim of a problem that has been evident for years but which few have the courage to fight.