SAHIWAL: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Sahiwal, faces the hard task of buying land for its office from its sources as currently it is functioning in three rented premises, Dawn has learnt.

Officials say the provincial Revenue Department refused to buy state land for the board and instead asked the board management to buy the land with its own financial resources.

The board needs a building where working could be done in an organised manner, said board chairman Dr Anwar Ahmed.

Jabbar Qureshi, secrecy branch head, said they faced problems in paper checking, rechecking, result compilation and result announcement.

“Despite these factors, we’ve declared results on time since the board was established two years ago,” he said.

Dr Ahmed said the board generated Rs410 million a year but its ongoing expenditures were Rs610 million which means the board lacks resources to buy the land with its resources.

Board officials see discrimination in Provincial Board of Revenue’s decision. They say a few years back the revenue board arranged state land for two universities in Sahiwal — the sub campus of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, and COMSAT. A local revenue official said 36 acres were bought for COMSAT and 52 acres for the BZU sub-campus.

Board officials said why the provincial government, the Punjab Higher Education Department and the Provincial Revenue Department were reluctant to allocate state land for the construction of Sahiwal board building. Dawn learnt that one year back state land near the Government Comprehensive School was marked for board officials but the proposal was shelved. Board secretary Shahid said 50 acres are required for the establishment of board’s own building.

The board serves thousands of candidates from Sahiwal, Pakpattan and Okara districts.

A board official said hundreds of candidates visited the board every day and they had to travel between two or three buildings to get their job done which consumed their time and resources.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014