Punjab University: IJT nazim expelled

LAHORE, March 26: The Punjab University on Wednesday expelled an IJT nazim and rusticated another activist for one year on the charges of beating up university students in the presence of the vice-chancellor two weeks ago....

Read the full story on Dawn

Finally some good news. Let's hope this is the first in a series and we soon see the end of Jamiat Regime in PU. Thanks, once again, to the students who have started this by setting an example of non-violent principled resistance. For details of the event, go here...

Non-violent Resistance and non-"Islami Jamiat Talba"

For ages, the educational institutions of Pakistan have been plagued by fascist groups of terrorists posing as students. Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) is one of the most "organized" of such cults and has been holding the largest university of Pakistan - University of Punjab (PU) - hostage for more than a couple of decades. They always resolve to violent tactics when faced by competition since they lack any moral ground whatsoever. These criminals, guised as students, sell the name of Islam to gain some sympathies in order to continue their heinous activities which range from extorting the local businesses and the university administration, allotting hostels to their favorites, irregularities in the examinations, and last but not the least, creating a continuous atmosphere of fear amongst the university population through use of violence. The students on the campus of PU have been living in a constant state of Martial Law where they can not even talk on social or political issues without getting beaten up.

IJT has repeatedly targeted (despite their promises of cooperation on all public forums) peaceful activists of Student Action Committee (SAC) which is a non-violent, non-partisan, students association striving for rule of law, freedom of judiciary and a rejuvenation of non-violent and non-partisan student activism on Pakistani campuses in Lahore and Islamabad. In the most recent string of events, they beat up three SAC activists who were merely distributing pro-judiciary flyers after the Friday prayer. Read the full story at FASTRising. They were brutally attacked, kicked and punched by more than a dozen IJT gangsters in front of the Mosque. How Islamic is that? and how student-like is that? The SAC activists, on the other hand, made a deliberate show of non-violence and did not make any effort to respond with the violence being thrown at them. Though they were badly injured in the process, but they came out victorious nonetheless; because they have shown, by practical example, what they stand for and how different they are from the thugs that oppose them.

The purpose of this post is to salute our heroes: Sajjad, Amir Jalal, and Haroon Riaz; who stood up to the challenge and showed what human will can accomplish despite terrible odds. They have, once again, put life into non-violent activism. They have provided us with, yet another, proof that the so-called IJT is neither Islamic, nor a student organization. The question that remains is, how long? How long will these gangs be allowed to disturb the calm of educational institutions? How long will these children of Zia's Martial Law be supported to maintain their own kind of Martial Law on students' soil? And, most important of all, how long will the students in general keep quiet about the cancer of our public universities/colleges?

RiseOfPakistan team thanks and salutes Sajjad, Amir and Haroon; who have made us all proud!

Aitzaz Ahsan finally released

Home Department issues re-arrest order in evening, but withdraws it late at night.

LAHORE: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Aitzaz Ahsan was released late on Thursday night after being put under house arrest in the evening. His 90-day detention order had expired on Thursday.

In the evening, Ahsan came out of his house, which was declared a sub-jail, and sat in his chamber at 6:20pm. However, when he tried to go to the Lahore Press Club, the police personnel deployed outside his house stopped him. He struggled with them and got in a car, but they blocked his way.

The police showed him a copy of his detention order, but Ahsan refused to accept it saying he wanted to see the original document. Meanwhile, dozens of lawyers gathered at the scene. The police brought the original detention order issued by the Home Department at around 10pm, four hours after his previous detention order had expired. He signed the document and wrote his objection on it. He wrote: “This is an extension beyond 90 days.

Hence it is illegal without presentation of the matter before the Review Board constituted under Article 10 of the Constitution. Even the attorney general of Pakistan has declared it illegal on television channels.”

Ahsan also wrote that the order did not mention any reason for the extension, which was contrary to Section-24-A of the General Clauses Act. He stated that the home secretary had passed the order “under the dictation of the federal government”. He added that he had been kept in detention forcibly by the police.

Talking to reporters before his re-arrest, Ahsan criticised the judges who had taken oath under the Provincial Constitution Order (PCO) for keeping quiet at the maltreatment of 60 other judges who had not accepted the PCO. He said sacked chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) was the current CJP’s neighbour and “in illegal detention, but he (the latter) was not taking suo moto notice”.

Source: DailyTimes