Private university students punished for ridiculing staff

LAHORE: The FAST-National University is under severe criticism after it took disciplinary action against some of its students recently for, what the university terms, defamatory memes produced by them.

As a collective punishment, 13 students have been directed by the FAST-NU Lahore to submit a written apology to the Lahore campus and also upload the same on their individual Facebook page’s timeline.

While under individual punishments, 11 students have been awarded punishment such as expulsion from Fall 2020 semester, one grade down in all courses and one-hour daily community services of cleaning and removing litter from the campus lawns and highway/walkways after opening of campuses for four weeks.

The university took this disciplinary action a couple of days ago for involvement of these students in “Facebook Defamatory Memes on FAT Lahore Posting Group”. However, as soon as the development reached social media, the university came under severe criticism from students and rights activists who demanded the FAST-NU Lahore to withdraw the notices issued to the students. In reaction to social media, a number of individuals came hard on the university for taking disciplinary action against the students over memes and termed it against the rights of students. One of the students, who introduced himself as Muhammad Anas Bhatti and who was awarded the punishment, took to social media, saying he posted around 5-6 memes in a private group.

“Do I deserve this punishment which will cost me around Rs 150,000 and one year,” he questioned.

In some of the memes, shared on social media, the students had ridiculed some of the faculty members and criticized the university for its policies. In one such meme, it was portrayed that the university was welcoming for female students while male students had to face the opposite.

When contacted a FAST-NU Lahore official, who wished to remain anonymous, said some of the memes were really disturbing and could not be discussed in public owing to which the university had to take this action against the students.

He said the university would not withdraw these notices at the moment and said once the students submit written apologies, the university management could decide future course of action.