PESHAWAR: The government has abandoned the plan of establishing an Islamic university at Imam Dheri and instead decided to set up a general university named Swat University, sources said.

Before launching the military operation in Swat, the government had agreed, under a peace deal with militants, to establish an Islamic university at Imam Dheri, the native village of Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, on the pattern of International Islamic University, Islamabad.

However, after dismantling the militant hideouts in Swat, the government has now decided to establish a general university in its place, the sources said.

In the peace deal, it was proposed that the Islamic university would be supervised by a committee comprising district police officer, district coordination officer, three MPAs and the same number of members from the Imam Dehri Markaz of Taliban.

The university plan was reflected in the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) as well as in the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) with a token allocation of Rs50 million and Rs13 million, respectively.

The provincial government had directed the higher education department to process the case on fast track.

A project director/vice-chancellor designate was also appointed to accelerate establishment of the university and a temporary campus of the university was established at the Government Jehanzab Postgraduate College at Saidu Sharif.

However, after Taliban violated the peace deal and the subsequent military operation against them, the federal government dropped the scheme from the PSDP, 2009-10.

Later, on a request of the provincial government, the federal government agreed to establish a general university that will offer science and technology, ethics and social sciences programmes.

Two sites for the university have been selected by the committee concerned, 1,000 kanals of land in the northeast of Mingora and a 322-kanal land which was acquired by the agriculture department for establishing a research centre for livestock in the Charbagh village on the Mingora-Kalam road.

The local administration has proposed that the university should be established away from the divisional headquarters to avoid future congestion and pressure on the already fragile infrastructure of Swat.

The higher education department has suggested the government to appoint a university teacher as project director rather than a non-professional person.

It has also suggested that with the changing of the name, the provincial government will have to redraft the regulation of the Swat university and seek its approval from the president.

When contacted, secretary for higher education Attaur Rehman Lodhi said the fate of the university in Swat had yet not been decided. ‘I can’t say anything categorically about the provincial government’s intentions regarding the university,’ he said.

However, he said a decision about the university would be taken in a few days.