PESHAWAR, Dec 23: A delegation of private sector universities in the NWFP has asked the governor to help extend the deadline set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, to meet the minimum criteria for granting charter, say officials.

According to a decision of the federal cabinet, charters of private universities failing to meet the HEC standards and remove deficiencies by February 2007, would be withdrawn sources told Dawn.

After the warning, the delegation recently called on Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah and requested him to come to their rescue. The delegation, according to sources, were also included representatives of the private sector universities declared as 'seriously deficient' by the HEC.

The commission has declared the Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar; Preston University, Kohat; City University of Science and Technology, Peshawar; Northern University, Nowshera, as seriously deficient and put them in category 'D'.

"Those private universities which do not meet the minimum criteria laid down by the cabinet will have their charters withdrawn in February 2007," reads a document of the HEC.

The HEC has warned parents through newspapers advertisements against seeking admissions for their children in illegal universities functioning in the private sector in different parts of the country. "But instead of improving their standard, the private sector universities of the NWFP requested the governor to get the deadline extended," said an official.

The universities declared illegal by the HEC are: Iqra University, Karachi, and its campuses in Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar; Al-Khair University, Mirpur, Azad Jammu Kashmir, and Peshawar's Hayatabad campus, Preston University, Kohat, and Sarhad University Peshawar etc.

In accordance with HEC's guidelines, the NWFP government granted charters to seven private universities in the province: City University, Peshawar; CECOS University, Peshawar; Sarhad University, Peshawar; Preston University, Kohat; Ghandahara University, Peshawar; Qurtaba University, Dera Ismail Khan and Northern University, Nowshera.

Official sources said these universities had been granted charters before the establishment of the Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA)- a provincial public sector entity established in October 2002, to help streamline, supervise and regulate the functioning of the private educational institutions in the NWFP.

"The authority has not granted charter to any private university since its establishment as those applied for registration were found deficient in some aspects," said an official of the education department, NWFP.

The authority, claimed the official, had successfully checked the mushroom growth of private institutions. Since its establishment it received numerous applications for the establishment of universities, but only four of them were under consideration, he said.

"A total of 11 private universities had applied for the grant of charters, but only four entities were under consideration," said the official. The universities whose cases are under consideration include: Abasyn University, Iqra University, American Institute of Management Sciences and Information Technology, and Khyber University.