TAXILA: A government college in Attock has been left without a single regular subject teacher, with all 14 teaching posts lying vacant.
Government Associate College Chhab, a decades-old institution, equipped with classrooms, science laboratories and a library, has been reduced to little more than an empty structure. Government Associate College Chhab was approved in 1976 and shifted to its present purpose-built campus in 1990. It has only its principal posted against 15 sanctioned teaching positions.
Spread over about 35 kanals, the college has six classrooms, physics, chemistry and biology laboratories, two multipurpose halls and a library containing hundreds of books. Yet the basic requirement of any educational institution remains conspicuously absent. Non-teaching staff are available, but there is effectively no regular faculty to teach students.
The institution has no boundary wall, entrance gate or exit gate. The residential blocks were declared semi-dangerous by the provincial building department in 1999. After 27 years, the condition of the other residential blocks, along with the principal’s residence, has further deteriorated, and the buildings require repairs and renovation.
The institutional neglect has persisted for years despite repeated written complaints by the college administration and representations by local residents. In a response to the Chief Minister’s Complaint Cell, the principal reportedly stated that the college had been without a permanent teacher for around a decade and that the authorities had repeatedly been informed, both verbally and in writing, but no tangible action had been taken.
The failure is particularly damaging in Chhab, a remote area where the college was intended to provide affordable higher education to students from nearly eight surrounding union councils. Many students from poor families reportedly stop studying after matriculation because their parents cannot afford to send them to colleges in urban centres.
The situation has also created a dilemma, as officials expect students to enrol before teachers are appointed, while parents are reluctant to risk their children’s academic year at a college without regular teachers.
Local residents said successive elected representatives had promised during election campaigns to make the college functional, but those promises had repeatedly failed to translate into appointments. They demanded permanent appointments in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, computer science and English. They also offered to conduct an enrolment campaign across the eight surrounding union councils if the government first provided the faculty.
Retired teacher Muhammad Farooq and Dr Muhammad Siddiq of the Chhab Social Welfare Society said the local community had contributed towards acquiring land for the college and was even prepared to help poor students pay their fees. However, they said, parents could not be expected to enrol their children in an institution without teachers.
Umar Farooq, a local, recalled that when he completed his FA from the college in 2002, seven to eight professors taught around 50 students in FA and FSc classes. The subsequent decline in enrolment, he said, followed the gradual disappearance of teachers from the institution.
Despite repeated attempts, Deputy Director Colleges Attock Prof Sadia Kanwal did not respond to calls or messages left on her mobile phone or WhatsApp number.
When contacted, Director Colleges Rawalpindi Division Dr Shahnaz Akhter said the issue had been brought to the attention of the Punjab Higher Education Department. She confirmed that all 14 teaching posts were vacant because no one was willing to work in far-flung, remote areas.
She said local parliamentarians, including members of the National and Provincial Assemblies, had been asked to allocate funds from their development schemes for the provision of development facilities, and their responses were awaited.
Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026
