KASUR: Establishing a university in the city has become a major issue for local politicians with promises dating back to 2008, while it has also become an import issue for locals.

The race accelerated after Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmed Khan announced establishing Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology in his hometown Khudian, some 25 kilometres from Kasur.

More recently, MNA from Kasur Saad Waseem also met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the approval of Bulleh Shah University in Kasur on Railway land. He also showed an approval letter to local media and later uploaded it on social media.

The MNA was reportedly facing criticism from locals over his inability to get a varsity approved in the city after the speaker’s announcement.

It is pertinent to mention here that Mr Waseem and other PML-N leaders had demanded the PTI-led government to establish a university in Kasur. The tables turned when the PML-N assumed power and faced public pressure for the same.

Residents, including Muhammad Waseem, Shoaib Ahmed, Muhammad Saleem and Abdul Razaq, said it was not the first time that Mr Waseem made this promise. They said that in 2022, he announced the establishment of a university and allocation of Rs100 million funds. Now, they said, he was again claiming that a university had been approved after a meeting with the PM.

The idea of establishing a university first came into the limelight when PPP former MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed announced the establishment of Bulleh Shah International University in 2008.

Later, the PPP leader got the bill approved by the National Assembly but it was rejected by a Senate standing committee, chaired by Irfan Saddiqui, on technical grounds. One of the reasons included that being a small district, a university could not be set up in Kasur.

Mr Manzoor, while talking to Dawn, regretted that policymakers were now changing the parametres for the PML-N.

Other politicians in Punjab are also in the race to establish universities in their respective districts.

Former MPA from PTI retired Col Muhammad Hashim Dogar got a university approved for Chunian tehsil in the development schemes for the year 2021-22.

Similarly, Provincial Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat announced that the UVAS sub-campus would be given the status of a university and a sub-campus of the Punjab University would also be established in Pattoki tehsil, his hometown.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2025