When the Corona Virus struck Pakistan, the education system decided that moving for online classes was the best course of action, however after seeing the mountains of issues this system created for students, many which went unnoticed by both education commission and the respective universities. Unlike that however, universities are not letting light-hearted jokes made by students on social media platforms go unnoticed and in a new term of events, FAST University has gone for one of the most gruesome penalties for students who were just trying to have bit of fun on social media, they have given out unjustifiable punishments to a group of students enrolled in its Lahore campus posting “memes” on a social media group on Facebook.
As per the details, 13 students have been ordered to write a formal apology to FAST Lahore and in addition to that, they have been ordered to post these written apology on their individual profiles and inform the university about this. The individual penalties issued to students go as far as expulsion from the institute for 6 months one whole year and in addition to that, demotion in the grades of all or some courses have also been accounted. 1-hour community service for a month such as picking litter from the campus once it reopens after the Coronavirus pandemic ends is also one of the punishments, FAST Lahore has issued students.
Must Read : Pakistan Scholar among winners of Facebook’s Ethics in AI Research awards
FAST Lahore’s discipline committee which is chaired by Dr. Summaira Sarfraz have gone out of their way to make the lives of students miserable and they haven’t stopped there stop there, the disciplinary committee have ordered 12 of their graduated students to submit a written apology and upload it on their individual Facebook profiles as well, these are students who have gotten their degrees and now have nothing to do or say for FAST, yet the immature behaviour of the university has seemed aplogoies from them as well. In case the graduates do not do this, FAST have threatened to revoke the degrees of its former students and will also goes as far as blacklisting them. FAST has threatened them of legal proceedings under cyberbullying and harassment laws.
Furthermore, Manager Academics and Deputy Controller of Exams FAST Lahore, Saifullah, has sent out an intimidating email to all existing students notifying them with the penalties imposed on fellow students recently, giving them a sense of what may happen to them if they try some humor on a social media website. The email from the Deputy Controller suggests that there is no space for dissenting voices in FAST. Meanwhile, the Old Students Association of FAST (OSAF) has also condemned FAST University the way they have handled this situation.
