THE Institute of Modern Sciences and Arts (IMSA), Hyderabad, which had started its journey with a bang two years back and risen to great fame, leaving far behind other similar institutes, has come tumbling down with the same speed. What made the difference between the IMSA and other institutes was big names that were invited to the institute at regular intervals. These VVIPs had unwittingly accepted the invitations and delivered lectures, adding to the fame of the institute.

To add a little “charity” to profit, the IMSA also held free teachers’ training courses and English teaching classes. It appeared as if the institute was rendering yeoman’s services in the cause of education. The helmsman of the institute only last week proudly announced that it was a non-profitable organization. The institute boasts of having highly respectable personalities as its “pioneers”. These include the late Syed Pannah Ali Shah, former Sindh education secretary S.M. Qureshi, Muzzaffar Hussain Shah, Dr A.R. Memon, vice chancellor, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology; and Dr Zubair Ahmed Shaikh among others. These august personalities need no introduction.

However, what is baffling is the word “pioneers”. Any organization is managed and run either by a board of directors, the owner of the enterprise or trustees, if it is a trust. And the IMSA is being run by a trust. So what are these pioneers meant to do and what are their functions. Only the pioneers can tell. The IMSA was going great guns till recently but some of the students rose in rebellion and broke the myth. They cried “fraud” and some of the newspapers joined them. A group of students also approached Dawn with documentary evidence and alleged that they had not been given a fair deal.

The receipts produced by the students showed that each student was required to deposit Rs5,000 as admission fee and Rs1,000 per month as tuition fee. Nothing wrong with it because private educational institutions have been given a carte blanche by the government to charge as much fees as they like. There are many an educational institution which is charging much more admission and tuition fees even from KG students than the tuition and admission fees charged by the IMSA.

However, what is grossly wrong is the fact that for almost two years the IMSA has been functioning independent of the Sindh University with which it is affiliated. For all practical purposes, all the affiliated educational institutions are subordinate to the universities in respect of examination schedule and they are legally bound to pay examination fee of the students to the universities. However, the IMSA never ever paid any examination fee to the Sindh University till it was exposed by the students.

When the IMSA students approached the Sindh University to obtain their mark-sheets and certificates, they were told that no record of examinations was available with the university as the IMSA had sent neither the examination results nor the examination fees. The students then approached Vice Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui who not only gave them a patient hearing but assured them that neither their money nor their time would go down the drain. He appointed a committee to scrutinize the IMSA record and find out what had gone wrong.

In the meantime, the IMSA sent a couple of demand drafts to the university, though very late, which, it is reported, have not yet been deposited in the university account pending investigations. Only three months back the IMSA had brought in Prof Syed Ibrahim Shah Bukhari, the former dean of the Sindh University and former vice chancellor of the Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, as project director to control the damage.

Meanwhile, Vice Principal Farida Shaikh and Administration Director Nusrat Khan, with Prof Syed Ibrahim Shah Bukhari, are trying to salvage the good name of the IMSA or whatever is left of it. At a press conference held here a week back, Prof Bukhari grudgingly admitted that some irregularities had been committed but he was trying to rectify the mistakes.

It will be interesting to note here that on its own and without permission from the Sindh University, the IMSA had also granted affiliations to some other institutes as if the IMSA was itself a university. However, following investigations by the Sindh University, it has published a notice in a local newspaper which reads: “All those educational institutions which were working in the capacity of study centres of IMSA, their affiliations have been cancelled and that these study centres have also been, accordingly, informed through letters.”

It is often said that there cannot be smoke without fire. Prof Bukhari has used a very mild word “irregularities”, which, in fact, are illegalities. A week back I had faxed some questions to the university authorities and it would be relevant here to incorporate these questions: “A group of students of IMSA had met with the undersigned and complained that they were not being furnished marks-sheets by the university although IMSA was affiliated with the Sindh University. They (students) were also sceptical whether their fees had been deposited in the university or not by the IMSA. It will be greatly appreciated if you could please furnish the following information through fax at your earliest convenience.

“When was the IMSA granted affiliation by the Sindh University? Why are marks-sheets not being issued to the students? Whether you have issued any examination schedule/annual calendar of IMSA as the university usually does in the case of affiliated colleges and institutions, whether any examinations of IMSA were conducted under the supervision of the university as is done in the case of other affiliated units? Is the IMSA working in accordance with rules and regulations prescribed by the university and have any fees of the students been deposited in the university as is done by the students of affiliated units who pay their fees through their respective colleges?”

Till date I have received no reply from the Sindh University in writing. All I was told on the telephone was that the university was seized of the matter. Thanks to the vice chancellor that finally the university is seized of the matter. Otherwise the university took no notice of the anomalies or what the IMSA authorities called “irregularities” which had been going on for the last two years.

What the inspector of colleges had been doing these two years, if one may ask. The most important thing is the future of the students who have been paying regular fees and have wasted two precious years but they know not whether they will be given degrees.

Another interesting thing is that to lure the students the IMSA has also issued a brochure, attaching newspapers’ clippings, that Germany required 75,000 IT experts and that the US Senate has agreed to increase the number of visas available for skilled foreign workers in their high-tech companies facing the shortage of skilled people to employ.

The students have also complained that although the IMSA had offered a number of computer courses, including BCS, BCIT, and MCIT, but all its teachers are not qualified. Moreover, some of the courses, including MCIT, which take three years to complete by the Sindh University are completed in two years by the IMSA. Another anomaly is that the IMSA started the MCIT course when it was not even in existence in the Sindh University.

Will the education department take any notice of these irregularities?