KARACHI: Struggling to revive the past glory of Jamia Millia Malir, senior educationists and teachers, most of whom have retired from active service and are volunteering, face an eviction threat from the historical office building built under the care of the late Prof Dr Mahmud Husain, it emerged on Tuesday.

Speaking to Dawn, members of the Majlis-i-Taleem-i-Milli Pakistan (MTMP), a registered educational society serving as the parent body of the Jamia Millia Educational Complex located in Malir, said that the director of schools accompanied by a crowd that included the area in-charge of a political party recently ‘stormed’ the office of the association where a meeting was in progress and threatened to seal the office.

“We all are still in shock. The office has been in the use of the association since 1948 and we have never faced such a situation before,” said Prof Dr Ismail Saad, president of the MTMP, who is presently associated with Iqra University as the dean of the faculty of education and learning sciences.

Prof Saad had earlier served as vice chancellor of Hamdard University, registrar of Karachi University and principal of Jamia Millia College. “We tried to make him understand our position but he wasn’t ready to listen.

He accused association members of taking over the land and infrastructure illegally and, in a threatening tone, asked us to vacate the land,” he recalled.

Highlighting the association’s concerns, he explained that it happily cooperated with the government when private educational institutions, including those of Jamia Millia, were nationalised back in 1972 as association members were under the impression that the government would do something to improve education standards. But that didn’t happen. In fact, educational standards gravely fell at these institutions, he said.

“Unfortunately, our attempts to take back the institutions couldn’t yield positive results. Besides, portions of land have been taken over by land mafia,” he said, adding that the association was contemplating seeking court intervention and challenging the director of schools’ verbal orders of eviction.

Regretting the incident, former head of the department of library science of the KU Prof Sadiq Ali Khan, who is currently part of the MTMP executive body, said: “Nothing in writing has been served to the association yet. The director of school repeatedly asked us to vacate the premises without giving a chance to us to explain our stance.”

The association, he said, wanted a phase-wise return of all its buildings.

The MTMP executive body members — most of whom are former Jamia Millia students and were in attendance at the meeting — are Dr Ibrahim Bukhari, Prof Irshad A. Khan, Prof Abdur Rashid, Shahnaz Ahad, Chaudhry Bashir Ahmed, Prof Zaka Siddiqui, Mukkaram Ali Khan, Bashir Iqbal, Prof Naimuddin, Prof Khalid Hanif and Junaid Hyder.

The elections of the association are held every two years.

The past presidents and secretaries of the MTMP included Prof Mahmud Husain, Master Abdul Hai, Prof Syed Viqar Azeem, Dr Saleem-uz-Zaman Siddiqui and Prof Ata-ur-Rehman.

Jamia Millia’s history

Inspired by Jamia Millia Delhi, some of its old students led by the late Prof Mahmud Husain, eminent academic, educationist and politician, established the MTMP in 1948. Later in 1952, a school with the name of Jamia Millia Primary School was set up in the suburbs of Karachi. Most part of the now Jamia Millia Malir spread over 27 acres was handed over by the Auqaf department (evacuee property board) while the rest was purchased by the association.

The commitment and devotion of association members led to the fast development of the campus that turned into a complex of eight fully-fledged educational institutions in less than two decades; Jamia Millia Boys Secondary School (1953), Jamia Millia Girls Secondary School (1966), Jamia Millia Degree College for Arts, Science and Commerce (1955-57), Jamia Millia College of Education (1959), Jamia Millia Polytechnic College (1964), central library and residential houses consisting of 36 quarters. Three big playgrounds, a mosque, a canteen, a swimming pool and agricultural and poultry farms were also part of the educational complex.

The educational institutions were nationalised in 1972.

A recent visit to a government primary school located in the Jamia Millia showed children studying in a dilapidated building that had been declared dangerous. The staff said that students would soon be shifted from here to another building.

“We are saddened to see the state of these institutions where we studied and that were lovingly built by our mentors. The government is currently running four primary schools here. One model school was initiated by the association in its office building eight years ago. A nominal fee of Rs250 is being charged,” said an association member presently teaching at a government college, adding that tuition fee was cut half for needy students.

Currently, he said, two cases involving Jamia Millia’s land were in court. “The association owns the property that means the whole land. Only the individual institutions were nationalised under the Martial Law Order 118 in 1972. It’s mentioned in the ordinance that only buildings of the schools or colleges have been nationalised not the land and the trusts or societies. The MTMP office was never touched by any government from 1972 till 2015,” he said.

The government, he said, had illegally constructed a new building of primary school without taking permission from the association. Most residential quarters were now in the hands of land-grabbers.

Replying to a question regarding handing over of Jamia Millia land to a private university, he said that it was handed under a fair agreement to benefit the community but that was violated by the university and the matter was taken to court.

“Last year, we had an out-of-court settlement and the university is now paying rent to the association that would use the funds to uplift the model school,” he said.

Director (government) of Schools Abdul Wahab Abbasi said that he came to the meeting with people, including an area MPA, and had strictly told all present at the meeting to vacate the premises. “They have occupied the office building illegally and are running a private school and university there.”

He rejected that the Majlis-i-Taleem-i-Milli Pakistan was an old association working since 1948. He said that the association failed to claim its property when the government started a process to return private educational institutions to their owners in the 1980s and then in 2000.

“I have sent my report to the education secretary. It’s the district administration that would give a notice to them in writing,” he said, adding that the party was selling land and had taken over premises built by the government.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2015

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