PESHAWAR, Jan 8: The upgradation of Islamia College to the university status is likely to create problems, sources say.

They said the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had issued an NOC for the college’s upgradation to Islamia College University (ICU) and a draft law sent to the HEC for vetting is likely to be approved. However, the college is yet to do homework for meeting the requirements of becoming a university.

The Islamia College established in the early 1950s was allotted 2,000 kanals of land. Of the total land, 1,000 kanals are in its possession. Over the rest of the land, the buildings housing University of Engineering and Technology and its hostels and the Khyber Medical College and its hostels have been constructed.

The ICU will be required to reclaim its land which is a gigantic task. The sources said the government had established four universities over the past few years. Among them was the Malakand University which is yet to commence MSc classes and appoint a controller of examinations.

The sources said that the ICU, which was approved by the former NWFP governor on Dec 3, 2007, would require the services of faculty members, equipment, finance, etc., for which no preparations have been made yet. Designing of new courses will be another difficult task for the ICU administration.

On the other hand, the University of Peshawar is opposed to the creation of ICU because it would lose a big piece of land.

“There is no justification for another university at the UoP campus which would be teaching the same subjects,” Prof Arbab Khan, president of the Peshawar University Teachers’ Association (PUTA), said at a press conference recently. The sources said that PUTA was opposing the plan because it would lose 25 seats in the college. Furthermore, the association would be deprived of 150 teachers who were at present its members.

Sources at the ICP alleged that a step-motherly attitude of the UoP had compelled the college staff to struggle for the upgradation. “We had launched postgraduate classes in English, Theology and Botany in 1994, but the then UoP vice-chancellor stopped these in 2001. In 2005, we were allowed to start postgraduate classes in Chemistry and Statistics only to be stopped by the UoP in 2007,” they said. “The UoP wanted its monopoly over postgraduate classes.”

The sources said that although the ICU might face problems at the initial stage, it had far better infrastructure than Malakand, Hazara, Bannu and Kohat universities.