Balochistan
students protest against
admission policy
* A National
Party leader says students want
interviews to be held at
district level
By Malik Siraj Akbar
QUETTA: Three students
from the Balochistan University
of Information Technology and
Management Sciences (BUITMS),
whose condition worsened on
Wednesday due to a prolonged
hunger strike demanding
district-based merit at their
university, were brought to the
Balochistan Governor's House in
stretcher.
Hundreds of Baloch students, who
held placards and banners in
their hands, staged a sit-in in
front of Governor's House and
chanted slogans against Governor
Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, who is
also the chancellor of the IT
University. They also blocked
the main road that leads to
Governor's House. Despite a
delegation of senior BUITMS
teachers and administration
staff urging the students to
abandon their hunger strike, the
students have refused to end
their strike.
Around 400 Baloch students from
BUITMS are on strike against the
current admission policy. All
Baloch nationalist political
parties, including the
Balochistan National Party-Mengal,
the National Party, the
Balochistan National Party-Awami,
the Baloch Republican Party (BRP)
and the Baloch Students'
Organisation (BSO)-Azad are
overtly backing the demands of
the Baloch students.
The students, led by Qambar
Baloch and joined by pupils from
other educational institutions,
are demanding that the admission
policy at BUITMS should be
reviewed and the merit system be
devolved at district level.
Currently, 70 percent
merit-based seats are fixed for
the entire province, but the
Baloch students argue that the
largest beneficiaries of such a
system are the non-Baloch
students living in the urban
parts of the province. They are
demanding that admissions should
be granted on a district-based
merit system.
District level: Jan Muhammad
Buledai, a central leader of the
National Party, told Daily Times
that the current movement of the
students was not against the
merit system, nor did it target
a fixation of quota for each
district. Instead, he said, they
wanted tests and interviews to
be conducted at the district
level so that students from all
districts could gain admission.
"The students who have staged a
hunger strike do not have
personal interests because they
have already secured their seats
at the university. They are only
struggling for the future of
future generations," he said,
adding that the Baloch political
parties wholeheartedly support
the struggle.
Meanwhile, the BSO announced a
boycott of all educational
institutions today (Thursday) to
press the government to meet its
demands. Shahzab Baloch, a BSO
leader, said that the BUITMS had
been established to provide
better education to the Baloch,
adding that if they were denied
entry into the varsity, they
would block the door of these
institutions for non-Baloch as
well.
As the strike gains momentum, it
appears likely that the
government may give into the
protesters' demands, as
university exams are scheduled
for next week