After Asad Umar, LUMS Should Apologize to Students Too
By Murtaza Haider
Toronto, Canada
What could be more embarrassing than extending an invitation and then rescinding it?
If a private club had revoked the invitation to Asad Umar , it would have been awkward at most. However, when this happens at a prestigious university, it goes beyond embarrassment.
The cancelling of the event violates the fundamental tenet of higher education: academic freedom.
A student group, with the consent of the LUMS administration, invited Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf's (PTI) Asad Umar to address the students. The university administration canceled the event after it discovered unauthorized posters about the event on-campus.
The planned address had been, "converted primarily into a political rather than [an] educational event in breach of the agreed policy," alleged the university's bigwigs.
At the very least, LUMS is guilty of prejudging the event, and its students.
Was this a disguised attempt to hold a political rally at LUMS, or was it simply a guest lecture by a politician?
We will never know because the administration at LUMS jumped the gun.
I am neither a fan nor a supporter of Imran Khan. In fact, I think of him as Jamat-i-Islami's B team.
Mr Khan's attempt to hold the constitutional democracy hostage has further compounded my apprehensions about the type of politics he has practiced. My criticism of his politics, however, is not an automatic rejection of the PTI's demand for an independent probe of the alleged rigging in the last elections.
I support Mr Khan's demands for an independent and impartial judicial commission, even when I do not support his methods.
Institutes of higher learning, especially universities, should not become echo chambers where only those views are allowed to air that enjoy the blessings of the university's hierarchy. Those whose views or methods that we may not agree with have every right to be heard as long as they do not practice hate speech or encourage unlawful behavior.
The unauthorized marketing of the event, it appears, has peeved the university administration. Similar situations do arise on the very campuses in the West where some members of the LUMS administration have studied or taught in the past. However, universities in the West respond very differently.
If the university campus is defaced by the unauthorized use of bills or posters, the administration removes such intrusions and invoices the organizers for its cost.
The administration then consults with the event organizers to seek their assurance for maintaining law and order and upholding the principles of free speech. The university also advises the event organizers that they will be invoiced for all security-related expenses for the event, which usually includes hiring of additional security staff.
The administration at LUMS posted a statement on the University's website, which serves more of an indictment against the University than the organizers of the event.
The administration confesses to have judged from the contents of the posters that the scheduled event would have been 'political' rather than 'educational'.
Such precise vision of future events is usually the domain of university administrators. Other mortals like us, indeed lack such foresight and wait patiently for events to unfold, rather than prejudging the motives of event organizers and their guests.
What is more disturbing, however, is that the administrators at LUMS appear to be the sole arbitrator of what is political and what is educational.
I would humbly submit that if we had not maintained the gulf between what is educational and what is political, we would not be in such a mess in Pakistan.
Being a professor at Canada's largest undergraduate business school, I can attest that even business schools in North America routinely invite politicians to address students and the faculty. The students benefit as much from the audience with political leaders (even partisan ones), as they do from the company of business leaders.
LUMS has been proactive in inviting business leaders to address the students at convocations and other events. Such rendezvous are exceedingly beneficial for students who can learn from those whom they will likely replace in the future. Exposure to political leaders will be equally useful for the students who may aspire to join politics one day.
Asad Umar is a politician, but he is no Sheikh Rasheed or Hafiz Salman Butt.
Mr Umar was not likely to convert the campus into a dharna. I would argue that even Mr Rashid and Mr Butt have as much right to be heard as anyone else does. However, given Mr Umar's business bona fides, students would have been well served to have an audience with him.
As a former associate dean of research and graduate programs ( Ryerson ) and a director of a university residence ( McGill ), I have learned to trust the judgment of our students. Those who study at LUMS are mindful of the fact that they are being educated at one of Pakistan's most prestigious academic institution. They would know the difference between political propaganda and political science.
LUMS has apologized to Asad Umar. That shows the University is in damage control mode.
LUMS should also apologize to its students whom it has prejudged. That would show compassion and maturity. (Murtaza Haider is a Toronto-based academic and the director of Regionomics.com. - Courtesy Dawn)
