Khyber Pakhtunkhwa public sector universities have expressed outrage over the decision of the provincial government to allocate a hefty sum of Rs. 8 billion to set up a new engineering university in Swat.
Faced with one among the worst financial crises so far, the establishment of a replacement university in Swat has irked existing public institutions that are struggling to pay basic salaries to their members of college .
Some eye-opening reports have surfaced, detailing the devastation which ensued after the pandemic hit.
For starters, the University of Peshawar (UoP) recently decided to pay basic salaries to its employees for January thanks to a scarcity of funds. The institute is seeking Rs. 400 million in federal funding to assist finance next month’s payouts.
Seeking bailout packages to avoid bankruptcy, the Islamia College has asked for an urgent Rs. 610 million bailout package despite owning properties worth billions. Albeit surprising, but the school has thus far did not recuperate rents from businesses that leased their lands and buildings over the past few decades. Today, Islamia College is nearly bankrupt.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture University Peshawar has been posing for Rs. 900 million in bailouts to pay its employees
General Secretary of the Engineering University Teachers Association (EUTA), Sadiq Ali, seemed irked at the KP government’s decision to determine another university within the province, with existing institutes struggling to take care of themselves. He said during a media brief,
What the government is doing to KP’s universities is not healthy, and it’s going to lead nowhere. The higher education sector has been in a shambles, and with each passing day the situation is going from bad to worse.
