KARACHI, Feb 9: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) has expressed concern over the handing over of a newly built Government College, Shireen Jinnah Colony, to a private association.

It said the newly constructed building of the college was at present under the control of the Education Works, City District Government Karachi, and the Sindh government had no authority to make a deal with a private concern for the possession of the college.

Severely criticising the government, SPLA’s professors Riaz Ahsan, Liaquat Aziz, Agha Khalid Pathan, Athar Hussain and others in a joint statement said the city was in dire need of 25 colleges to be built in the public sector to cater to the needs of a growing number of students.

They expressed surprise over the handing over of the Government Shireen Jinnah College to a private association, saying that instead of building more colleges, the government was depriving students of getting affordable education.

They accused the government of giving away public sector colleges at prime locations and said some black sheep in the education department were involved in handing government educational institutes to the private sector. They demanded a high-level inquiry in this regard.

The SPLA leaders said that under the same 'dubious' policy the Saint Joseph’s and Saint Patrick's Colleges of Karachi, also situated at prime location, were handed over to the private sector. They said that after upgrading the Urdu College to university some 5,000 students were affected and the handing over of the Government Saint Patrick's Colleges to the private sector had affected 3,000 more students.

They said that no new colleges were opened to ensure admission of 8,000 matriculate students of Karachi.

The SPLA leaders maintained that colleges in the public sector generally catered to the needs of those students belonging to low-income families, who could not afford sending their children to expensive private institutions.

Recently, the Federal Government Boys Secondary School in Firdous Colony, situated at a prime location near Nazimabad Chowrangi, was given to a private individual. An inquiry was conducted by the education secretary, who was himself party to the whole affair, just to hush up the matter.

The SPLA leaders appealed to the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to take a suo motu notice of the sale and handing over of government educational institutions to the private sector.