Arsalan Bilal on Hunger Strike - UPDATED

Words are mightier than the sword.

Ask the administrators of Bahria University Islamabad who have expelled Arsalan Bilal from the University for threatening staff members by forwarding a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. It appears irrelevant to the administrators that the same email was forwarded to his friends, class fellows, and family members, yet Faiz’s poetry is a reason good enough to warrant expulsion if a teacher is added to the mailing list.

Bahria University has also declared Arsalan Bilal “psychologically unstable”, even though they are no experts in psychiatry. If so, the university appears to have set aside its responsibility towards student welfare and supporting vulnerable members of its community and gone about adding to his mental stress by deciding to expel him.

This should all sound very familiar. In April 2011, Professor Qamar Riaz Mahmitkhel was dismissed from Bahria University for questioning the role of retired military officials and whether creativity could flourish in a military style setup. The question was asked in a packed auditorium and the response of the university’s administrators was for the Director Campus Commodore (retired) Mohammad Ali and security personnel to grab him by the collar and assault him. A 100 or so students subsequently protested against his dismissal at which point Naval Intelligence officials harassed the protestors and the administration threatened them with expulsion.

Mr Bilal who also runs Insight News – Bahria University, a Facebook page dedicated to news related to the institution, had also questioned the role of ex-Naval officials and certain faculty members policies in the university. He has been discouraged in pursuing his undergraduate research in ‘Politicization of religion in Pakistan’ and faced discrimination as he belongs to a minority sect.

As a result, Arsalan Bilal has gone on an indefinite hunger strike before Bahria University Islamabad from the 6^th of April.

When challenged, administrators usually explain their actions by pointing to the greater good. For example, the case of women being raped in International Islamic University Islamabad was hushed up, as the administration wanted to protect the reputation of the institution.

Universities in Pakistan, especially those of the Bahria University variety have reduced higher education to an extension of secondary school. The emphasis is on discipline, uniform, fines for poor attendance etc. What is ignored, is the quality of teaching and the content of the curriculum, emphasising rote learning and propaganda over thoughtful analysis and evaluation. The incident involving a retired Brigadier who assaulted a lecturer in NUML University for “daring” to “say something about the Army” comes to mind.

The fact is that HEC regulations are not enforced and individuals without the prerequisite qualifications are appointed in universities based on their affiliation with either the military or the civilian bureaucracy is not only HEC’s failure to enforce the law, our collective silence fails those students who study in these institutions.

The fact is that despite HEC’s efforts, the quality of Higher Education in Pakistan remains dismal. We are not producing mature, analytical and creative individuals ready to take on the world. Some universities are nothing more than over glorified finishing schools where 20 year olds are treated like children. The same administrators may send their own children to foreign universities where they are no uniforms, no attendance and the environment lacking any “discipline” of the variety they enforce on others.

Public universities cannot and must not be used as the post retirement, cushy appointment for retired bureaucrats, whether military or civil. I am sure there are many ex-military officials who can make excellent contributions to learning in education, however, the variety that expels students for raising questions and assaults teaching stuff have little to offer apart from their massive egos.

Education is far too important to be left to individuals. The key and most important stakeholders are and should be the students themselves. The HEC has developed elaborate structures and layers of bureaucracy that serves everyone but the students. Administrators are all powerful whether in the private or the public sector. Teaching staff have little or no job security and are subservient to the whims of administrators, most of whom have no background in education.  

If you believe that education is more than wearing uniforms and wearing your tie correctly then it’s important to support Arsalan Bilal in his protest. If he is silenced then the status quo will remain unchanged and it will silence anyone else who hopes to question the powers that be. Thousands upon thousands of students will receive a poor education, undeserving for an individual in the 21^st century.

A university student is old enough to join the military, marry, drive, carry a weapon, yet university administrators seem hell bent on treating them as children. Things must not continue as they are! 

Update: Arsalan Bilal on Saach TV: http://saach.tv/2012/04/12/strike-for-justice-or-self-promotion/

Follow Arsalan Bilal on Twitter: @arsalanbilal 

This post was originally published in the ET Blogs: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/11033/bahria-university-arsalan-bilals-hunger-for-justice/

A related post on Bahria University: http://liberalfacist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/misplaced-priorities-in-higher.html

Misplaced priorities in Higher Education

Another day, and it seems history repeats itself.

When we are not discussing some vague educational policy buzzword, namely "uniform education", newspaper articles announce the appointment of new Vice Chancellors or Rectors to various universities across the country.

Apparently, in Pakistan there is a mass shortage of people to run universities. And if your university happens to be affiliated with the military, then most probably, your institution is probably more obsessed with "discipline", dress code and how the sexes can interact with each other.

Today I came across the following post on Insight News - Bahria University

NEWS: Vice Admiral (r) Shahid Iqbal takes charge as new Rector of Bahria University. Sources have informed Insight News that he has already indicated that the rigid rules implemented in the university shall be relaxed for students' convenience, however, the dress code will be imposed strictly by the authorities. "He is a humble and lenient person, " sources said. Iqbal's term will expire in February 2014. [HQ BUREAU]

Now I am sure, the retired Vice Admiral must be a jolly fellow who has served his country admirably over the course of his career, but what exactly is his qualification to run a university and preside over its policy and management? Is his rank in his former profession the only thing that qualifies for his post retirement cushy job?

This whole notion of "rigid rules" for legal adults is preposterous. Learning at university is less and less about what you do in class, and more about your wider experiences, independence, confidence building, building communication skills etc. 

As I commented previously, an 18 year old in Pakistan can join the military, where he or she may be required to kill someone, he or she can drive a car, a motorcycle, marry, hold an arms licence and what not. But god forbid that a 20 year old cloths are "inappropriate" or he/she is sitting too close to a member from the opposite sex. Not too mention that the students are paying consumers.

We see this everywhere from one degree to the other, NUML has had its fair share of controversies where retired Army officers have gone around throwing their weight, beating up lecturers and quite conveniently awarding their own relatives and colleagues degrees and scholarships. NUST is the same, but I believe that they have now relaxed their dress code. In Bahria University last year we had the case of a teacher who dared to question the qualifications of the ex-Naval administrators. Under whose authority, naval intelligence, and serving naval personnel were used to monitor the teachers and students protests is no big secret. The fact that the administrators got away with all this, and the concerned teacher was eventually fired, says alot about what their priorities are.

What I never understand is that, administrators with some affiliation with the military are all focused on rigidity, discipline and conduct when they run schools, colleges or universities, however, they have no qualms about sending their own sons and daughters to private schools and then foreign universities, where there is no "discipline", attendance or dress code. Hypocrisy? 

Perhaps, they have nothing else to offer apart from passing edicts about how students should behave?  

Private universities, who are sometime criticised for being "too modern" or liberal are playing catchup, telling Master level students what to wear and where to sit, while conveniently ignoring the academic product that they are offering. 

Perhaps if the International Islamic University Islamabad was spending less time enforcing gender segregation as their central duty, and placed some trust in their students, they wouldn't have sat idly by, whilst members of their staff sexually harass employees and students. 

For all there wise cracks on how higher education needs to be "disciplined", regimenting university life, in the same fashion as a primary school isn't going to add value to education. We need to really think about the direction in which higher education is moving.

Moralising over the behaviour of students as the primary concern is a pathetic cop out for educational institutions, who then overlook the academic quality they are offering, by selling themselves as disciplined institutions. 

P.S. The following link leads to the Board of Governors of Bahria University - Apparently most of the naval high command moonlights in the university as a second job. http://www.bahria.edu.pk/newSite/home.php?catId=622