LAHORE: Hundreds of students, including Afghan nationals who were awarded scholarships by the Pakistan government, have been protesting for last five to six months against the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and their college over ‘non-attestation’ of their degrees.

About 4,000 Pakistani and more than 100 Afghan students of the Imperial College of Business Studies had launched the protest five months ago but their hue and cry fell on deaf ears. Last week, they blocked Shahkam Chowk near the Bahria Town campus of the college for two days, forcing the college to suspend all its academic activities. The students opened the roads after the college administration and HEC officials assured them that their issue would be resolved.

In the first batch in 2012, some 32 Afghan students who had got scholarships were given admission to the Imperial College of Business Studies, Bahria Town, which did not issue them degrees even after completion of their studies.

Protesters include more than 100 Afghans who got scholarships from central govt

In the second batch, another 71 Afghan students were given admission to the college’s Engineering Department but they came to know later that the college was not accredited by the HEC.

One of the protesters, Haider Kaleem, told Dawn the students had got admission to various faculties of the college in 2012 but the HEC banned it in 2016 when they had completed their studies. He said the HEC was not attesting their degrees and no one was ready to address their grievance.

“It’s not students’ fault that the college had failed to get accreditation from the HEC and Pakistan Engineering Council and if the institution had not fulfilled the HEC criteria why it is allowed to operate and why the authorities had sent the scholarship holder Afghan students.”

Kaleem said there were more than 5,000 students of two campuses of the college whose future was at stake as their degrees were not being attested.

HEC Project Director Jahanzaib Khan told Dawn the Afghan Scholarship Programme was started by the Federal Ministry of Education in 2009. He said after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, it was handed over to Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination which sent the Afghan students to private institutions and the HEC had no role in giving admissions to them.

“The Imperial College of Business Studies is not charted by the Punjab government and its higher education department and they have not issued a no objection certificate (NOC) to it.”

Mr Khan said the degrees of the college could be attested by the HEC only after the Punjab government gave NOC to the college.

“It’s the issue of only the students who had got admission to the engineering department of the college but the degrees of the students of other departments were attested,” he added.

Explaining the situation, he said the HEC officials visited the college and held discussions with the administration over the issue.

Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairperson Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin said Imperial College of Business Studies was given NOC by the Sindh government but it was challenged before the court and its accreditation was cancelled.

He said some of the Afghan scholarship holders and Pakistani students who had got admission to engineering department of the college were facing problems and the PHEC officials would visit the college on Monday (today) to address their issue.

“Some private institutes had started educational programmes without getting NOC and approval of the PHEC and they were asked to complete legal formalities before proceeding with such programmes. The current issue of the Imperial college would be solved soon,” Dr Nizamuddin added.

Imperial College of Business Studies Rector/Vice Chancellor Dr Saleem Shuja told Dawn that they had applied for accreditation in 2013 which was pending till date.

He said the government had earlier allowed and sent Afghan students to their institutions with commitment to start the programmes but later they did not issue the certificate. He claimed the college had completed all legal formalities and it would soon get accreditation and the degrees of the students, including Afghan nationals, would be attested.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2017