ISLAMABAD - Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani has written to the vice-chancellor of the Karachi University (KU) raising his concerns over its decision to share students’ data with intelligence agencies amid growing concerns about student involvement in terrorist activity.

“I am abhorred by the news reports that the record of students at the university will be handed over to the intelligence agencies. [And at that] further they will be required to produce a character certificate from the local police station for admission,” Rabbani said in his letter.

According to some media reports, the KU administration has decided to share its students’ data with intelligence agencies after the police found that the mastermind of the attack on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan was a student of the university.  The university will also require character certificates from students issued by the local police seeking admission to the educational institute from the next academic session, some TV channels have reported.

Karachi police claims that the alleged mastermind identified as Abdul Karim Sarosh Siddiqui is a central commander of a new militant outfit Ansarul Shariah Pakistan (ASP). The senate chairman in his letter said that the two institutes — the intelligence agencies and the police were the hard face of the state, and an interaction with them would further consolidate the anxiety and fear in the minds of the students.

“Immediate steps are required to address the issue of extremism and violence among the youth; a total review of the curriculum and implementation of the Senate of Pakistan’s resolution on restoring student unions, as diverse literary and academic activity will produce a counter paradigm,” Rabbani said. He said that he was writing that letter not in the capacity of Senate chairman but as a concerned citizen of Pakistan.  “I hope you will convey my views to the academic authorities, taking the decision in this regard,” he concluded.