UET Student Complains of Discrimination
Lahore:July 11: Due to alleged mismanagement and discrimination on the part of the University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore (UET), an EMBA student has been denied the opportunity to appear in the re-take examination as he had to go abroad before the mid-term with the written approval of the then director of the department concerned.
The discrimination in denying the student the permission to re-take the exam became evident especially in view of other precedents where the varsity allowed a couple of students to re-take the examination, who could also not take the mid-term examination due to various reasons.
According to details, Mohsin Mumtaz Seyal, a student of MBA Executive at the Institute of Business & Management (IB&M), at UET, has been denied the opportunity to appear in the re-take examination by the newly appointed director IB&M Dr Muhammad Shoaib on the reason that he was abroad at the time when mid-term exams were held and, as he was absent, he can not sit for re-take exam according to the rules.
Mohsin had left for the USA for immigration purpose after written approval for a month’s long trip (March 7 to April 9) from the then director IB&M Dr Sajid Ali. A copy of written approval is available with The News. Incidentally, mid-term exams were held during that period of time.
In the meantime, the then Director Dr Sajid Ali got resigned from the post and Dr Muhammad Shoaib was appointed new director who refused to allow Mohsin to sit for a re-take exam when he returned back from the USA.
Mohsin then moved an application to Vice Chancellor UET Maj Gen (retd) Muhammad Akram to get some relief. The VC after going through the application forwarded it to the UET Registrar who forwarded it to IB&M director Dr Shoaib. Dr Shoaib refused to accommodate aggrieved student saying he could not allow him to sit for re-take as rules did not allow him to do so.
Meanwhile, two students named Muhammad Naeem Sharif and Farooq Jalal who could not appear in the mid-term exam due to different reasons, were not only allowed to re-take mid-term exam but their mid-term marks were also included in the final list. Farooq could not appear in the exam as his father had died a few days before the start of exam and Naeem, a manager of a private bank, had gone out of city for some important official engagements.
Talking to The News, Mohsin said if such rules did not exist then why the university administration had not informed him and instead allowed him to go abroad. “What is my fault?”, asked Mohsin saying he went abroad after the written approval of the then director. According to him, missing of mid-term exam had affected his overall CGPA a lot which could be improved if he was allowed to sit for re-take exam. Interestingly, when contacted, Dr Shoaib persisted that no one was allowed re-take exam. When his attention was drawn toward Farooq and Naeem, he said he had no idea how it had happened, claiming he would inquire into the issue.
Dr Shoaib claimed there was no such (re-take policy) policy at the UET, adding if the VC allowed him to accommodate Mohsin he would conduct re-take exam for him.
When his attention was drawn that Mohsin went abroad after the written approval of the then director, he replied: “If some one had done some thing wrong in past he would not continue the same policy”.
Talking to The News, the former director IB&M Dr Ali Sajid conceded to the fact that he had allowed Mohsin to go abroad after thoroughly going through his case (immigration). According to him, re-take exam was allowed in the UET having solid reasons behind the claim. He said when a student got written approval from the authority concerned (director of an institute) he should be allowed to appear in the re-take exam. “If a teacher allows a student vacations on solid reasons then no Rules of the university could stop him to sit for re-take exam”.
Dr Sajid Ali regretted how the new management could forcibly implement any new rules or policy on students without informing them. He said if new management had changed the re-take policy then it should had been applied at the students from the next semester after informing them in details about it. He termed it discrimination against Mohsin which should be considered accordingly.The news.
