HARIPUR: The Public Forum Haripur (PFH)on Thursday promised all possible support to the Regional Professional Development Centre here to protect its historical building used for teacher training since 1952.

The promise was made by the PFH office-bearers during a visit to the RPDC.

Forum chairman Khalid Khan Jadoon led the visitors, who were briefed by RPDC principal Hanifullah and senior instructor Dr Waqar Sahibzada about the building and the likelihood of its being leased out to a local NGO, as well as the teacher training programme and its beneficiaries.

The principal said the RPDC was the only training institution for male teachers in seven districts of Hazara division and that hundreds of teachers underwent mandatory induction training annually.

“We train teachers in pedagogy and core subjects,” he said, adding that 1,752 teachers of nine cadres are enrolled in the centre.

He said authorities were falsely informed by vested interests that the building had been unutilised, in a bid to occupy it.

The principal urged civil society and media to protect that “historical asset” of Haripur.

Public Forum Haripur chairman Khalid Jadoon said his organisation would resist any move to occupy the RPDC building and would take up the matter with authorities, including commissioner and deputy commissioner, for the building’s protection.

He said the court of law could also be petitioned for the purpose.

Meanwhile, former MPA and QWP provincial vice-chairperson Dr Faiza Rasheed flayed the leasing out of the RPDC building to a private eye trust and warned people would stage street protests against the move.

The building was originally put up for the Khalsa High School in 1913 by Lakshmi Chand Khalsa, a British era contractor, who was tasked with laying railway tracks in the Hazara region.

The school, whose first headmaster was Sardar Mohan Singh, offered education to the students of all faiths. It was named the New Government High School in 1947 and was upgraded as a teacher training school on May 27, 1952.It was later declared the RPDC.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2023