MUZAFFARABAD: With over 5,000 students on its rolls, the state-run University of Poonch (UoP) in Rawalakot has been grappling with acute shortage of physical facilities and student accommodation and its recently appointed vice chancellor has urged all stakeholders to play their role in addressing this issue at the earliest.

Prof Dr Mohammad Zakria Zakar, who assumed office early last month after serving as the founding vice chancellor of the University of Okara, told varsity officials at a consultative meeting on Monday that infrastructural development was greatly linked with academic excellence and he would therefore give equal importance to both simultaneously.

The UoP was founded by an Act of the AJK Assembly in 2014 with its main campus in Rawalakot, the district headquarters of Poonch. It has two sub-campuses in the towns of Mang in district Sudhnoti and Forward Kahuta in district Haveli. The varsity has 32 departments with an enrolment of as many as 5,500 students at the moment which Mr Zakar wants to augment by further improving the standard and reputation of the institution.

Construction of a new campus in Chota Galla on the outskirts of Rawalakot was initiated by Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) in 2010 at an estimated cost of Rs1.233 million under the funding by the Kuwait government. However, work on it was shelved in 2018 after only 30pc progress allegedly due to Erra’s internal issues.

Side by side, a Rs1,292 million Higher Education Commission funded infrastructural development project was also initiated by the UoP in 2018.

The meeting was told that 64pc work of this project has been completed at a cost of Rs487 million, despite Covid-19 restrictions in the past two years, and the remaining work would be completed in one year as there was no interruption in cash flow.

The vice chancellor asked the varsity officials to prepare a report on factors that had led to the inordinate delay in Erra supervised project so that the concerned quarters could be reached with “facts and figures” for early redress.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2022