The government, you must have heard, is said to be actively considering a new city across the Margalla Hills, which will be connected with the existing capital through multi-lane tunnels. Does that have a connection with the educational system that we have in the country? Apparently not, but in fact, yes.

The project is so First World in its conception, magnitude, scale and expenditure that it is almost criminal to even think of it in a Third World nation. In a country like Pakistan — with certain additional dimensions thrown in — it should be criminal in the legal sense; should at least attract a suo motu stay order, if nothing else. And this widening gulf between the ground reality and the whim and fancy of the policymakers is precisely what is basically wrong with the country; education being an integral part of it.

The plan to have a university in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), in this regard, is not much different. Anybody who knows what is happening in Fata — and who doesn’t know that? — would try at best to keep the existing educational institutions functional instead of going up a notch in the name of promoting education.

There are 37 colleges in seven tribal agencies and six frontier regions in which around 100,000 boys and girls are enrolled. This is what the official numbers say. What they don’t talk about is the number of colleges that remain closed due to militancy in the area. All these colleges, as per the plan, would be affiliated with the proposed university. May one ask what is wrong with the current affiliation of these colleges? In what way or manner it is affecting the process of education in the colleges? And, how will the establishment of a university improve the standard of education in those colleges?

The questions obviously are too simple to attract the officialdom to bother about answering. The establishment of universities has been a much fancied idea ever since the Higher Education Commission started getting project-related funds from donor governments and agencies.

The history of converting colleges into universities and establishing more and more and more universities does not run too deep; it is a relatively recent phenomenon dating back to just the Musharraf period. The dollars were coming in and, unlike the previous occasions, these were not, so to speak, ‘free’ dollars. They were ‘allocated’ dollars for various social segments, and education was one of the key areas identified by the donors.

To ‘earn’ those dollars, one had to show something happening on the ground. Those at the helm could have taken their time to rationalise their approach rather than thinking on the move, but they were desperate for the dollars because they could come only by showing on-ground progress.

What happened in the field of, say, medical universities, is enough to establish the point. One after the other, medical colleges started putting on the university tag. These included colleges that were not even worthy of being called colleges. The increase in the net worth of these universities was in terms of their budget. After all, the office of a university vice-chancellor had to look more plush and cosy than that of a college principal. That naturally called for more budget, but that was not a problem because the coffers of the HEC were at the time brimming with money, money and more of it.

With this attitude on show, every university felt inclined to take its share of the booty. All they had to do was to come up with a project that needed financing. Since quality of education could not be considered a project — perhaps because it was not a tangible commodity — universities had to think of projects against which they could show something on the ground. It was a massive exercise in infrastructure enhancement that had precious little to do with education. The quality of this enhancement is in itself an interesting issue, but that is beside the point in the context of these lines.

Today, the sun has stopped shining on the HEC. The expansion of the last decade is now a stranglehold that is making life tough even for the mainstream universities like the NED and the University of Karachi.

The proposed university at Fata has all the signs of taking the same route that resulted in a mushroom — and unsustainable — growth of seats of higher learning with ‘learning’ being the last thing on anybody’s mind; anybody concerned, that is.

Approved on May 20 this year, the project has already experienced political interference. Initially, a tug of war among local parliamentarians was the major hurdle to the opening of the university, with every Fata parliamentarian manoeuvring to take the project to his own constituency. Once Akhurwal in Darra Adamkhel was finalised as the site, it was the nomination of the vice-chancellor that became the bone of contention. In its nascent life, the university has already seen two vice-chancellors getting relieved.

And in all this, the process of education is nowhere in sight.

humair.ishtiaq@gmail.com