LAHORE, May 10: The Punjab University has not been allowing the MAO College to launch an MBA programme for the last two years or so on the pretext that it has yet to fulfil the affiliation criteria, it is learnt.

Sources said the college administration applied several times for affiliation for the programme but the PU was showing reluctance on the pressure of some political figures.

They said a particular private sector group wanted the PU not to give affiliation for the programme to any institution in private and public sectors for a certain period of time so that it could enjoy monopoly over it.

The sources said the fee structure offered by the college for commerce related courses was much less than that of private sector institutions which feared that if it (MAO) was allowed to run a postgraduate course in business administration hardly a few student would turn to them.

A senior teacher of the college told this reporter that the Punjab government had already issued an NoC to it to launch the MBA programme but the PU administration did not pay any heed to it.

He said the particular group also was not happy over the number of students enrolled in the college’s B.Com programme.

He said the PU had no valid grounds to refuse the college affiliation as its business administration department had 90 computers, computer laboratories with printers, internet, scanner and multimedia facilities, permanent staff for all subjects and 15 national and international journals while the PU’s Institute of Business Administration had 75 computers and 22 national and international journals.

PU registrar Prof Dr Naeem Khan said the MAO College could not satisfy the affiliation committee of the varsity. The committee did not grant affiliation for any programme unless an institution, private or public, fulfilled the Higher Education Commission’s criteria in this regard. —Zulqernain Tahir