Due to lack of coordination and consecutive autocratic behaviour of Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood with the media, the media was once again on Friday barred from coverage of Vice Chancellors’ (VCs) conference. Debates of such conference ever deemed pivotal for public.
Public Relation Officer (PRO) of ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Ali Shah shared an official invite with media regarding conference which scheduled to be held at 11 am on Friday at a local hotel. Subsequently some journalists from print and electronic media reached with cameras to cover the event. However, minister Mehmood personally asked all of them that “media was not invited to cover the event”.
Not only this, the PRO also seemed forget invite he himself shared with media. “Private media is not asked to cover the event”, PRO Shah told journalists who reached there for coverage.
Later on, the PRO apologized for the inconvenience. “I extremely apologise for inconvenience caused to you (Journalists). It was responsibility of PSO to Minister to clearly tell the minister desires for Media Coverage or not. He just highlighted it for coverage and sent it to me. Keeping in view the importance of meeting and minister address, I invited you that I was supposed to do”, he said in a statement he shared with beat reporters.
This was a third incident as the education minister shown such disgusting behaviour with reporters and cameramen. A couple of months ago similar happening was occurred at a conference (in Islamabad) which was related to national curriculum reforms. All provincial stakeholders were also present on the occasion and media personals also reached as per invitation to cover the event while Mehmood on that time also had prohibited them from coverage saying that it’s an in-camera meeting. The journalists regretted over the mess and termed the act as a very non-professional.
“It was a messed up event without coordinating with the media section of parent organization. Reporters should have been told beforehand that media isn’t invited. Higher Education Commission (HEC) says it’s in-camera and here you invited all. I hope we avoid any such inconvenience and embarrassing moments for media, said a reporter Riaz Ul Haq who is covering education beat for over a decade.
Meanwhile, over 200 VCs both from private and public sector universities across the country participated in the conference. VCs deliberated on different issues being faced in the country’s varsities. Female harassment, student unions as well as funding issues were major discussions among others.
According to the details collected by Daily Times, while highlighting student unions restoration issue. Most of the VCs opposed the restoration of student unions. They were of the view that this move would create another trouble as existed unions in the varsities are hurdle in many administrative affairs of the universities.
The HEC already had opposed the restoration of student unions in educational institutions. Last month, the HEC management submitted a document with a parliamentary panel, in which it said that the commission does not support the restoration of student unions and instead proposes student associations on “healthy activities” such as poetry, debate, music and sports.
While talking on funding deficiency, the VC of a public sector university in Karachi said that this is very serious issue. “As for my varsity, we even don’t have funds to pay salaries to our existing staff, including teaching and non-teaching,” he claimed.
The stakeholders maintained that there is direly needed to formulate a comprehensive policy to cope with ever increasing harassment incidents in the country’s universities.
