Term end troubles!

By Saniya Khan

Gone are the days when we used to run away from our teachers and used to pull faces at the name of studying yet still manages to complete our course on time, but now because of lack of interest shown by the administration and some teachers most of the time students are seeing running after teachers to complete their notes especially when the end of the term is approaching.

If a teacher leaves during the term it is the responsibility of the administration to immediately appoint a new teacher in his/her place so as to avoid the maximum loss of studies but here just when a term is about to end you are blessed with a teacher who urges you to rush and get done with the remaining course in the next four classes and also keep preparing yourself for the terminals,not just this students now have to mould themselves according to the teaching style of new teacher in which most fail as it is not easy to adapt oneself to a new teaching methodology.

However,absence of a teacher is somehow tolerable because what can one do when there is no teacher, but what if a teacher is present but doesn’t show up in class and keeps the student waiting for a long time most part of the semester? And when semester is about to finish asks you for an extra class, no matter if one already has a class in the same timing the teacher will go on with the lecture for two hours because she has to compensate for the lectures she would have given earlier, and then it becomes the responsiblity of the students to take the class whatever happens if they have to get their notes completed before the term ends and terminals starts.

This attitude of teachers and administration often creates problems for students and they are unable to perform well in their examinations,thus collective effort from the administration and teachers can save students from all these troubles.

Brays and Neighs

By Maham Tanveer

Our biggest and most distressful national tragedy is that, we comfortably adopt the direction, we are directed to. It is as a donkey rides see-saw and believes that he is heading towards his new office of governor. But the most ancient thing that has always whirled around and among us, is "changing the system". Any system of government has not become profitable to us since 63 years of creation. It cannot become actually as long as we follow others. Root cause of all our problems is that we don't adopt what suit us!!

It is exactly the same as students of Mass Communication (UOK) and the syllabus taught to them. We live in Pakistan, quote French quotations, wear Italian, eat Malaysian, watch Indian and study American. It is a fact that we are bombarded at books and as a result, students like us, chop books to bits. It is as our teachers teach differently the same topic from the same book. If currency is a news value for one teacher, for other, it is a thing to be laughed upon. We have studied different definitions of news, some of them are :

news is news and views is views

everything that is new, is a news (so everything with physic is physics??)

One said read as much as you can, other said write as much as you can, the next said speak as much as .... We read rejected constitutions of Pakistan scores of time, but never read that where Quaid-e-Azam used which policy?

Apart from professional jealousies, our some teachers are victims of departmental jealousies too. Our very dedicated compulsory teacher said : I will never teach in Mass Com after this, then he placed an order of hanging at least 7 fans in every room, then ordered AC in every class too, then he felt insufficient ventilation and then finally he had problem with duster too. We had traditional day today and I am glad to say that he did not DESPERATELY comment on it.

We have some teachers who mark absent of whole class when class goes for IT (ijtamai tulla) but they themselves never come on time or don't come instead. Last day a girl came to me (when i was resting on department's favorite sofa) and asked that she want admission in Mass Com, is it tough? You should be gossip expert to pass time, I replied!

We were taught by a teacher who took 3 classes in whole semester. We were taught by a subsidiary teacher who gave marks in 90s to students whom he knew by name (no matter if they took classes or not) and 70s and 80 - 85 marks to remainders. It means that you can score remarkable marks if you are often found in teacher's office. And now we are being taught by a subsidiary teacher who, after asking meaning of some word, says "kissi k baap mein himmat nahin hai k mujhe is ka meaning bata de". We have heard epithets of "dog" and "ullu ka patha" from a teacher. One teacher even prated in class, don't know what!

Our some teachers are victims of idealism and male chauvinism too. You use heavy words and philosophy and you will become favorite.

I am not apologetic if I hurt anyone' sentiments through this post. After so much of investigative work, I wanted to speak my heart out, the heart which is fluttering with hopes, trembling with thoughts of 2 more FREE years in Mass Com and waiting anxiously for job's golden era :)

Finally we are studying something important

By Fahad Ullah

Its been very difficult for me to post blogs don't know why but it's something I am not interested to do so.
Several of my group members have criticized my lazy attitude but I can not explain my problems to them as I have much more to do in life instead of clearing my account in front of others.

But now at this time of the night I would like to highlight a fact that I we have wasted our three semesters in this university and thank god we have something to learn in the 4th semester finally. Sir Humair Ishtiaq and Ma'am Sadia have finally get the practical work rolling from us which is better than learning from books.

The blog and report writing will definitely help us immensely to improve our writing skills, the way we think and the technicalities we need to learn in order to become good journalists. I am not fond of reading out long chapters and handouts so for me its a blessing that we are going through the trauma of reading books What all we need to do is to think a bit and then transform our imagination into words.

I sincerely thanks both the teachers mentioned above in helping us to get the feel of practical work which will help us in professional life.

Students week

By Nabeel Hashmi

Students week has started from Monday and so has the fun. It can not get more funnier than what happened on the first day  as the cheap day was celebrated in the department of Mass communication.

Though I opted to remain out of the cheap day celebrations but I was observing people with their bizarre dressings. Some of the boys really showed that they can dress just like Gabbar Singh of film Sholay by wearing T shirts and shirts over Shalwar while the girls were wearing different bright colours to stand out among their fellows.

Well the week has just begun and I am sure there will be many more interesting things which we will witness in the upcoming days and I am keeping my fingers crossed as I know unexpected things could be expected from the students of our department.

Jiye Mass comm

Eve teasing!!!!

By Huda Ayaz

We are being taught since our childhood, the role and respect a woman possesses in a society. Even our media emphasis largely upon woman’s rights and the tragedies she endures in this contemporary world through different soups and reality shows.

But, with all these increment of awareness programs and the bills that are passing to promulgate women’s right, we are still the victims of ignorance. Women are being humiliated mentally, physically and psychologically and the male chauvinism remains constant. They are tortured in public places, in streets, in public transport, and even in their families. Despairing as it is, women are no longer safe in their education campuses as well.

hen we join Karachi University, we were supposed to feel free to go any where within the premises of our varsity, as if it’s our second home. But there are few unfortunate events and notorious people who have made us girls not to feel protected anymore.

There are girls who are being teased with a worst possible ways to threaten their dignities.

A friend of my friend was a victim, who was molested by her department’s chairperson. When I questioned what had happened latter, she said the girl left varsity and the student adviser who supported the girl was rusticated, thus nobody dares to reopen that issue again.

My cousin’s friend was harassed by rangers on her way to the department near gymnasium, because she was alone on Saturday, and her department does not give Saturday’s off. Another girl was mentally harassed with abusive remarks by few boys, and the guards standing their laughed on her, instead of protecting her.

The point is why these hideous people don’t get punished even though we have strong political wings in our varsity?? It’s somewhat unfeasible to eliminate these harassments, but they can be put under control.

SUPERIORITY COMPLEXES

By Tooba Altaf


Everyone is aware of the fact that many KUrians are the victim of inferiority complex due to lots of reasons. But few pay attention, on the contrary, there is a major chunk of students present in UoK who are superiority complex sufferers. Following are the different categories of such people:

Adjusting in KU was never easy:

This statement is mostly heard by the new students of UoK because their college and school were of another level (according to them). They all were aware of the fact that Uok is a “PUBLIC” university and after this if they expect something out of UoK then it is completely their fault.

Fashion Guruzzz:

Uok caters a huge group of fashion experts who consider commenting on everyone’s appearance as their duty. These people seem to have a great misconception about themselves that only they know the fashion and in trends. The funny part is that usually this generation supports the idea of “FREEDOM”. Then, why can’t they give the liberty to people to appear as they want?

We Can Do Everything:

The attributes of this particular group is that they can do assignments, exams, informative workshops, successful seminars, magazines, newspapers and what not. In short, you name it and they can do it. But the only flaw is that, the result of their efforts is usually not very satisfactory.

We know it all:

There are some students present in UoK who think they know better than teachers. They always have issues, be it any subject or any topic. They are never satisfied with teacher’s teaching methodologies. Just to get them out of this illusion, teacher should once give a chance to such students to deliver a lecture.

Islamists:

Most political workers of a religious party think that only they are true Muslims. According to them, listening music, sitting with a girl and other such stuff is prohibited but not attending a single lecture and just taking exam is very right and a justified way.

So, here were some categories which according to me are experiencing the imbalance of attitudes and behaviors.

Target killings and education

By Suzanna Sardar Masih

Karachi is a mega city with a racially, ethnically, politically and religiously diverse population. With so many people of varying ideologies and beliefs conflict is bound to arise. The last year or so has seen a rise in the trend known as target killing usually carried out by but not limited to political parties and their ‘karkuns’. The stream of endless violence and gore has paralyzed the city on various occasions. Education like other arenas of life is also very badly affected by all these episodes.

One of the most recent examples is that of the killing of MQM MPA Raza Haider. Within a matter of hours of the incident violence erupted all over Karachi shops, buses, petrol pumps were set on fire and much chaos ensued. More than 30 people lost their lives in the violence. Due to situation in the city all educational institutes were instructed to remain closed the next day. Even the days after that attendance in them was very low as parents preferred to keep their children home fearing more violence.


Target killings are taking a toll on the academic lives of us students. With bouts of violence erupting anytime anywhere in the city without so much as a warning our studies are affected. Due to unavailability of public transport or points we can’t make it to our universities or colleges and if by some miracle we do either the teacher couldn’t make it or a political party has ‘declared’ classes as off.

Then there is the issue that target killings when area specific create problems for students as well. One part of the city may be shut down whereas the rest goes on as normal. In this situation it is the student who suffers because he can’t reach the university or college and thus misses out on a whole day of lectures and not to mention the all important attendance.

KU being as diverse as the Karachi landscape itself is a hub of student politics and party activists. In the past, incidents of altercations between these parties are very common resulting in tense conditions inside the university. With target killings on the rise it is only a matter of time before what is going on in the city enters our university too. Because of such worries many parents including my own are reluctant to send their children to study here. God forbid a day like that ever comes till then we can only hope that these terrorists (because that’s what they are) realize the damage they are doing to themselves, us and future of Pakistan.