KARACHI, July 19: The Sindh government has handed over SM Government Science College back to its parent institution, Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU), after 39 years, according to an SMIU press release issued on Friday.

A notification issued by the Sindh government on July 18 stated that in pursuance of the education and literacy department notifications, dated 31.08.2012 and 04.10.2012, and with the approval of the chief minister, the SM Government Science College and SMIU would be merged on the following terms and conditions: the SM college has been declared a constituent part of the SMIU. With the merger, the university shall convert the college into a model college that will function under the administrative control of SMIU, Karachi and the staff/faculty members working in the college are given following options: either to continue working with the college at the SMIU or remain under the administrative control of the Sindh education and literacy department.

While speaking to the SMIU senior management after receiving the notification in respect of SMIU-SM college merger, SMIU Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh said that the name of SM Govt Science College would remain the same. He said the academic programmes being run at the college would continue with the addition of BBA, MBA and PhD courses. He said that the staff and faculty members who would continue to work with the college under the administrative control of SMIU would be given additional one grade.

The SMIU shall make all-out efforts to bring the SM Science College to the level of one of the country’s best model colleges, he said.

He thanked the government for returning the college to its parent institution.

The vice chancellor then informed the SMIU management that the SM college was situated in three old hostel buildings of Sindh Madressah — Hassanally House (built in 1909), Khairpur House (built in 1912) and Sardar House (built in 1919). All these three buildings were built on the land of Sindh Madressah, which served as hostels until the 1950s when science classes for Sindh Madressa College (S.M. College) had started in these buildings. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had inaugurated the SM college on June 21, 1943, which was housed in Talpur House, another hostel of SMI, built in July 1901. It was an arts college. Presently, he added, the Sindh Madressa Model School (boys section) is housed in Talpur House. At some stage, the SM Arts college was closed for undisclosed reasons and the science section was named as S.M. Science College. The vice chancellor added that after nationalisation of the Sindh Madressatul Islam, including its SM Science College in 1972 by the then federal government, the institutions worked under the administrative control of the Sindh government up to 1974. Then in 1974, the Sindh Madressa was put under the federal government control, while the SM Science College remained under the Sindh government control.

Dr Shaikh maintained that Sindh Madressatul Islam after getting the university status in February 2012 started making efforts to restore its past splendour. He said the Sindh government was requested to either merge SM Science College with the SMIU or shift it to another building owned by the Sindh government, because dual administration within the same boundary was creating enormous problems for the SMIU. Among these, a major problem was related to security of the SMIU campus and its boys and girls model schools, which existed within the same boundary. According to the vice chancellor, more than 20 people were killed in a bomb attack on a Shia mosque on the SMI premises in 2004.—PPI