SWABI: The closure of the Girls Degree College, Topi, has worried the poor students and their parents.

The college was established by the Frontier Education Foundation during the term of Muttahida Majlis-i-Ammal government in the province. Former education minister Fazal Ali was instrumental in establishing the institution.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, the students and parents said Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan, founder of Islamia College Peshawar, belonged to the Topi city and depriving girls of his hometown from getting education was a great injustice with them.

“Sahibzada Qayyum lit the candle of knowledge which continues to spread its light across Pakhtun landscape but girls of the Topi city where he lies buried have been deprived of education facility,” Saleem Bahadar, a local, deplored.

Shaking his head in despair over the closure of college, elderly Mir Alam remarked that by shutting the college the authorities had done a great injustice with the poor girls of the region.

Local residents said girls from as far as Gadoon Amazai mountainous belt also studied at the college. “There is no other girls college or higher secondary school in the region,” brother of a girl belonging to Gadoon Amazai told Dawn.

Local MPA Shiraz Khan said the college was closed probably due to paucity of funds. However, he said he would raise the issue at the floor of the KP assembly. He questioned the claim of the PTI that it was focusing on improving girls’ education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The closure of the college is a clear evidence of the contradiction the ruling party has when it comes to implementing its decisions,” he said.

Meanwhile, the girls seeking admission in the first year were told by the college administration to go elsewhere as the educational institution had been closed.

Parents said closure of the college had perturbed them as due to cultural taboos and various other problems they could not allow their daughters to go to far-flung colleges for acquiring education.

When contacted, Rangaiz Khan, a former election candidate from the area, told Dawn that he had met KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar on Monday who had assured that the matter would be discussed in a meeting with the chief minister and education secretary on Thursday (today).

SEARCH OPERATION: Pak Army and police on Wednesday conducted a joint search and strike operation in Gadoon Amazai, and arrested 224 suspected persons from different localities. The mountainous region borders Buner district.

The operation was carried out in the backdrop of killing of a Taliban militant in an encounter on Tuesday.

District Police Officer Javid Iqbal told journalists that army and police of four periphery districts of Mardan participated in the joint operation.

“The detained persons would be interrogated and those who were found to be innocent would be set free,” he said.

However, he said those found to have links with militants would be punished under the law of the land. The police also recovered two Kalashnikovs, five pistols, seven guns and thousands of rounds from the possession of the suspected persons, the DPO said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2016