MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 3: Students demonstrated here on Friday in protest against a reported plan to move the AJK University out of the state capital. The demonstration, held at a busy junction close to the Neelum bridge, was organized by the Muttahida Talba Mahaz and was attended also by some political leaders, including a former AJK minister belonging to People’s Party.

“We are committed to building the nation but the government is committed to destroying the nation,” read a big banner in English carried by the protesters. MTM president Shahzad Rathore accused the AJK government of planning to shift the university and government offices from the state capital.

“On the one hand, the government is asking Muzaffarabad’s residents to return to their homes and on the other it is shifting state institutions out of the capital,” he said, adding the student community could not tolerate that “duplicity”.

Mr Rathore also criticized the Vice Chancellor Dr Manzoor Hussain Khan and some other varsity officials, alleging that they were behind the plan for their personal convenience.

A former AJK minister for local government, Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, said it was the government’s indifference that had encouraged many institutions to shift from the capital.

“If the GOC (General Officer Commanding) and representatives of international organizations can base themselves and function from here, then why not the university officials?” he asked.

Displaying a copy of a varsity notification of Oct 24, stating that none of its offices would be moved out of Muzaffarabad, Mr Ahmed said people of the capital wanted to know why the varsity was going against this announcement.

He pointed out that the AJK council’s income tax and audit wing had also moved out of Muzaffarabad.

“I would only say that it is due to inefficiency and negligence of the government”.

Muzaffarabad’s Central Bar Association president Maqbool Ahmed Var also criticized the reported plan and asked the AJK president and the university’s Chancellor Sardar Anwar Khan to play his role in this regard.

PPAJK leader Shaukat Javed Mir said that lawmakers from Muzaffarabad should resign if they could not protect their area’s rights.

The demonstrators wanted to march on the Bank Road, but cancelled their programme after the AJK minister for sports, youth and culture, Deevan Ali Khan, and MLA from Muzaffarabad Syed Murtaza Gillani arrived at the place to pacify the protesters.

“As long as we are in the legislative assembly, we will not let any kind of shifting to take place,” said Mir Gillani.