ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: Muhammad Aftab, a 26-year-old from Hazara Division, who works in a private firm in Islamabad and is doing a teaching training course at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will not be visiting his family for Eid.

He cannot go to his native village because the examination department of AIOU has scheduled his exam for October 26 from 2pm to 5pm at Islamabad Model School for Boys G-8/1.

While talking to Dawn Aftab said that Eid will be on October 27. It takes around five to six hours to reach the main road near Lora — his village in Hazara — and then he has to walk for three hours to reach his house.

“I can go on foot to my house from the main road but the problem is that I will not get any conveyance/public transport on Eid night and I cannot afford to pay around Rs6,000 to a cab driver because my salary is Rs10,000,” he said.

“So I will have no choice but to spend Eid in Islamabad. On the other hand management of my office has instructed me to join the office on the third day of Eid, which means I’ll have to come back early.”

“I also contacted superintendent exams and requested him to resolve the issue but he said that he cannot do anything and suggested to me that I should contact management of AIOU. I went in the university but officers of examination department were not ready to listen to me,” he said.

Aftab is not the only student of AIOU who has to face the same problems. There are hundreds of students of AIOU who have been doing different courses and are puzzled because of problematic date sheets of AIOU.

According to an official of the university, AIOU announced exams of Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC) for Matric students, Certificate of Teaching (CT) for Intermediate Students and Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) for graduate students just a week ago, for October 26, a day before Eid. —Ikram Junaidi