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IJT shows its strength at Punjab University

* Holds unauthorised Seeratul Nabi conference, bans sale of multinational products on campus
* Students email Musharraf about growing intolerance

By Khalid Khattak

LAHORE: The Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) continues to flex its muscle at Punjab University, holding a Seeratul Nabi conference in one of the university’s buildings on Thursday in defiance of the rules. It also “banned” the sale on campus of a few products manufactured by multinational companies.

Last Tuesday, IJT activists beat up English Department students they accused of “immoral activities, having un-Islamic views and improper dressing”. And a couple of days ago, it arranged a dars-e-Quran event at boys hostels and forced canteens, shops and messes to shut down so that students and workers could attend the event.

The Seeratul Nabi conference was organised on the New Campus even though the university administration had said such events need authorisation, which was not received. Posters of the conference were seen all over and the IJT also released an official statement on the conference on Thursday.

Many students attended the conference, which had separate seating for men and women.

Students said speakers at the conference mainly focused on jihad. “The conference was a political gimmick. Nasarullah Khan Goraiya, the Pakistan IJT nazim, said that while people across the globe were converting to Islam, people at the Punjab University were being forced to take part in plays, concerts and other ‘immoral activities’,” one student said. A PU official said the administration would take action against students involved in organising the event.

Muhammad Ayub, the university’s IJT nazim, claimed that the administration was consulted before the conference was organised. He said there was no harm in holding seminars on Islam. He said many students attended, which proved that they wanted to lead an Islamic way of life. “Nobody had been forced to join the IJT,” he added.

Students and teachers fear the IJT’s growing influence. “What we see is that the IJT is free to organise events and free to promote its ideology amongst students. We have emailed President Pervez Musharraf and the Interior Ministry, demanding they take notice of violence being perpetrated by the IJT and their Islamisation campaign on campus and at the hostels,” one student said. The IJT also issued a press release on Thursday about the assault on English Department students, after the PU vice chancellor formed a two-member inquiry committee.

“Some miscreants, following a foreign agenda, wanted to turn the English Department into a den of obscenity and immoral activity. The department is at the height of vulgarity and immorality, which is a violation of the university’s sanctity and calendar, and a sheer violation of Islam,” said the press release.

“The Punjab University is a fort of Islam and no student will be allowed to indulge in immoral activity. Parents send their daughters to the university in hope of a good, secure and peaceful atmosphere. The IJT will continue working for a good and peaceful atmosphere free from immorality on campus. We will not let the university become a home of immoral and vulgar activity.”

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