LAHORE, Jan 23: President Pervez Musharraf has ordered doubling gradually the existing capacity of 500 students in the Hasanabdal Cadet College during the next five years.

Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool gave out this while presiding over a meeting of the Hasanabdal Cadet College's Board of Governors here at the Governor's House on Friday.

The governor said the president would announce funds for the construction of teaching blocks for the additional students and six new hostels at the golden jubilee celebrations of the college being held in the last week of March next.

He appreciated that besides becoming military officers, the graduates of the Cadet College had won laurels in different walks of life. The meeting was informed that around 17 acres of land had been acquired for the extension of the college. It also reviewed the endowment fund created by the college's Old Boys Association.

It rejected a request by the college's two teachers working in Pakistan embassy schools in Indonesia and China on a two-year deputation to allow them liaison with their parent institution.

The meeting decided that only such government employees would get this facility who had gone abroad for higher education through proper channel. It also considered the proposal to establish an army girls college in Hasanabdal.