THE Punjab University dispute could well turn into a raging conflict, involving the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba and the Pakhtun students mainly on Balochistan`s quota who have emerged as a force to reckon with in recent years. The two sides bring to the campus, and specifically to hostel life, two different sets of values. Last March, IJT students were accused of disrupting a culturalevent organised by the Pakhtun students.

There was a clash and the police had to intervene. A few days ago, it was the Pakhtun students` turn to disrupt preparations for an event the IJT wanted to hold to welcome new students to the university. Violent clashes led the police and education ministry officials, including the higher education minister, to seek an urgent resolution through the force of law. The police`s invasion of the hostels predictably complicated an issue which could perhaps have been handled best by the university administration. A couple of hundred students have been either booked or expelled since the latest clash between the two hostile groups earlier this week. Angry statements are being exchanged by the hour and more players, including politicians, appear to want to exploit the situation so that they can make their own point.

There are various elements which are alleged to have played a role in the making of this ugly situation at PU, especially for those who are lodged in the university`s hostels. The one very obvious element is the visible weakening of the IJT, which has emboldened another group to challenge its writ on university campuses. In the absence of student unions, which could well have been bound by some kind of a political ideology, the opposition to the IJT has easily taken on an ethnic hue. And then there is the part played by the government through the police and other agents. A case can be built around the police not doing enough when it was most required of the force. If there had been proper action on the complaints filed after one party to the conflict tried to impose its code on the other last March maybe there would have been an example to deter those who initiated the clash this time round. In the event, inaction gave the complainants an opportunity to label the police and the government at large as a loose ally of the disrupters. This is a dangerous tag that could have dire repercussions.