PESHAWAR, Dec 20: Girl students of the University of Peshawar enrolled in the evening programme are facing accommodation problems and are forced to reside in private hostels.

Most of them hailing from far-flung areas of the province have to wait for almost a year to get a seat in university hostels, said a student of the international relations department.

Girl students have no other option but to live in private hostels being run by serving and retired university officials in the residential colony in the varsity premises, a group of students told Dawn.

Sources said that Bakhtawar hostel in the professors’ colony was being run serving university official and his wife, another was being run by a retired vice-principal of the Home Economics College and another private girls’ hostel was run by a retired army official.

The university official concerned and the provost were not available for comment when contacted.

The Puta hostel, another girls’ hostel set up in a rented bungalow, was run by the Peshawar University Employees Foundation, the sources said.

There are some 38 graduate and post-graduate departments and the number of admissions in both evening and morning shifts is around 50-60 students per class.

A majority of students seek boarding and lodging facilities.

An official of the university, on condition of anonymity, said that the accommodation of girl students was not that big a problem, but some elements have made it to run their private hostels.

The official said that there was ample space available to construct hostels.

The university was building hostels to overcome the problem. The university had added another storey to a girl’s hostel to accommodate 80 students, said Planning and Development Director Iftikhar Hussain Khan.