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| India-Pakistan |
| Academia pushes back against HEC efforts to stifle debate |
| 2014-11-09 |
| [DAWN] Educationists, professors and leading academics have flayed the Higher Education Commission's (HEC) attempts at stifling debate and discourse in the country's universities by prohibiting any activities that challenged the "ideology and principles of Pakistain, and/or perspective of the government of Pakistain". A one-page memo ‐ issued in the wake of the controversy surrounding the presence of a stall representing Israel at a recently-held Model United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... (MUN) event at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) ‐ was not well-received in academic and educational circles, with many stakeholders criticising the edict for seeking to effectively curtail freedom of expression on campus. Several key individuals within the academic community have also called on the HEC chairman to withdraw the memo, which they believe to be an attempt by the commission to get universities to toe the government's line. "Universities are supposed to be places where students learn about history, politics, sociology, and science in an open atmosphere," renowned physicist and educationist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy told Dawn. |
| Posted by:Fred |