KOHAT: The principal of the Kohat Medical College has appealed to the government for including a boys hostel in the under-construction Rs10 billion building of the college, and till its completion, arranging temporary accommodation on subsidised rates for hundreds of students living in private accommodations since 2006.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Laal Mohammad said the college was approved by then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Lt-Gen Iftikhar Hussain Shah, and was first attached to the Kohat University of Science and Technology. Now it was affiliated with Khyber Medical University as a prerequisite for its recognition, he added.

He said presently 750 male and female students of MBBS and BDS were living in private buildings at scattered places in the city bearing the exorbitant rent besides cost of food.

He said since 2006 when the college was established he had been trying to arrange funds for it so that the students could get education at affordable rates.

Dr Laal claimed that it was the best college in the province which ranked first recently in terms of quality education and facilities available to students. He regretted that he had been giving presentations to state minister Sheharyar Afridi to arrange some government grant, but to no avail.

A student leader, Safeer Ahmed, told Dawn that the annual fee in other government colleges was Rs20,000 only and the admission was Rs35,000. But, in case of Kohat Medical College they were being charged Rs135,600 as admission and Rs110,000 as annual fees which was grave injustice with them.

He said they had been raising the issue with the government, but to no avail.

BAN ON AFGHANS’ MOVEMENT: The deputy commissioner has imposed section 144, barring Afghans from leaving their camp and entering the city after evening, besides, banning display of weapons till Ramazan 30.

The business community, however, has termed the ban on Afghan refugees as their financial murder because all of them who came to the city were employed in fruit, vegetable, and clothing shops as labourers.

The traders said the people bought food items after evening and activities for purchase of shoes and clothes for Eid festival had already started, therefore, the ban should be relaxed after at least 15th of Ramazan.

An official statement issued here on Sunday said the elders of the Afghans had been told about the decision, and that if anybody was found outside the refugee camp after evening he would be sent behind bars.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2019