SIALKOT: The Government Murray College, Sialkot, has no hostel facility for its girl students who either travel long distances or stay in rented houses in the vicinity of the college, bearing extra expenses.

The college has 6,000 students and 2,200 of them are girls, many of them belong to remote areas of the district. Such students have to stay in rented houses as they can’t commute between college and home on a daily basis.

The increasing rent is becoming unbearable for the girls’ families as each girl spends about Rs4,000 to 5,000 per month extra on residence.

Several girls told Dawn it was getting hard by the day for their families to bear extra expenditures on their residence in rented houses.

The girls and their families have urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to ensure establishment of a girls hostel at the college.

College Principal Prof Javaid Akhtar Billah said the establishment of a hostel for facilitating girl students was the need of the hour. Besides, he said, the Punjab government should give the Murray College the status of a university and establish its new campus on the outskirts of Sialkot.

He said 200 acres of government land were available at Ladhar village which could be used for the new campus.

Mr Billah said the college’s existing classrooms were not enough for the increasing number of students and the existing classrooms lack the basic facilities like furniture.

Several college students, including Ali Imran, Sidra, Mohsin Iqbal, Ali Khalil and Fatima, demanded start of mass communication at the BS and MA levels as there is no such programme at the college.

They said the students who wanted to study the subject had to go to Gujrat, Gujranwala or Lahore.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2016