ISLAMABAD:28 April: Students of the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) on Friday held protest against absence of required facilities, affecting their academic activities as well as the inaugural session of an international conference on social sciences.

The students, mostly living at the QAU hostels, gathered early in the morning and protested against lack of facilities in the hostel, such as water shortage, additional charges and unresolved thesis matters.

The students gave a 10-minute deadline to the university administration and hurled stones and damaged the university property.

The university called the police when the situation went out of control. The police baton-charged the protesting students, causing injuries to some of them.

The protesters said that they were facing acute water shortage in the hostel despite paying huge amounts for the residence facility. They complained the administration was not paying heed to their complaints.

Some of them said that their thesis matters were pending for a long time which was wasting their time and resources. The administration has become habitual of imposing fine on students on one pretext or the other, they said.

Talking to APP, a QAU official said that the protesters restrained the delegates from entering the university and attending the conference, which created an awkward situation.

Later, the situation was brought under control and the conference was conducted, he said.

Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek and Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Javed Leghari were guests at the conference.

The students protested against water shortage, additional charges, library and transport issues and took advantage of the presence of media to highlight their problems. The official pointed out that the protest was the result of rivalry between different departments. The university will not be closed and classes will be held on regular basis, he added. app.