PESHAWAR: Eleven of the 27 public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lack their own purpose-built infrastructure and have been functioning in the buildings of other departments or rented ones, affecting the academic environment and administrative affairs of the universities, according to sources.

Four of these 11 universities were established during the ANP-led provincial government from 2008 to 2013.

“One of the reasons of not having own buildings is stated to be the mushroom growth of the public sector universities as 10 universities were established by the previous PTI government and nine in the tenure of the ANP government,” sources said.

They said that other reasons included delay in acquisition of land for the purpose, poor planning for new universities, delay in construction of buildings, less interest of the federal government in release of funds and inefficiencies by the vice-chancellors etc.

The universities without own buildings established in the ANP government include University of Swat that was established in 2010, University of Swabi in 2012, Bacha Khan University Charsadda in 2012 and Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak in 2012.

Lack of proper infrastructure affects academic environment, administrative affairs of the institutions

Similarly, the universities functioning without own buildings established during the previous PTI government include Women University Swabi, Women University Mardan, University of Lakki Marwat, Agricultural University Dera Ismail Khan, University of Buner, University of Engineering and Technology Mardan and Shuhada-i-Army Public School University of Technology, Nowshera.

The University of Swat has been functioning in the rented building while the Women University Swabi, University of Lakki Marwat, University of Buner and Women University Mardan are functioning in the buildings of the government colleges.

Sources said that Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak was operating in the building of revenue department, Shuhad-i-Army Public School University of Technology, Nowshera in the building of a closed mills and UET Mardan in the building of the agriculture department.

The University of Swat is functioning at two different buildings located around 15 kilometres apart from each other. “It has been affecting the academic and administrative affairs,” an official of the university told Dawn.

He said that six departments of the university were functioning in a building in Sangota area while the remaining departments were operating in the residential bungalows of Kanju Township.

“Right now, there is no academic environment in the University of Swat due to the absence of purpose-built infrastructure that includes academic blocks, grounds, libraries, laboratories etc,” he said.

Prof Mohammad Jamal Khan, the vice-chancellor of University of Swat, when contacted, said that currently construction of two academic blocks was underway and one of them would be completed soon. The provincial and federal governments have released Rs1.5 billion and Rs1 billion respectively for the construction of the academic blocks.

He said that delay in construction of the buildings was caused owing to issues of land acquisition, absence of a permanent vice-chancellor for 19 months and an inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau due to which the work had stopped.

“We need four more academic blocks about which I have prepared a work plan to be submitted to the higher education department,” said Prof Jamal.

Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak also faced space problem as it had been functioning in a building of the revenue department since 2012, said an official of the university.

He said that space problem was aggravating every year with the enrolment of fresh students. “A room for teachers adjacent to the cafeteria of the university has been using as a classroom because of less space,” he added.

The official said that students had been residing in the hostels established in the private houses as the university had no hostel. He added that there was no sign of starting construction work on the buildings for the university on its land acquired near Jail Chowk.

Shaukat Yousafzai, the spokesperson for provincial government, when contacted, expressed ignorance about the universities functioning without purpose-built infrastructure. “Let me talk to the secretary of higher education department for information, then I will call you back,” he told this scribe. But he didn’t respond within two days.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2018