ISLAMABAD: The syndicate of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) on Thursday rejected the proposal of selling the university’s land to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

“Today, we discussed the matter in detail and a majority of the members opposed the proposal of handing over the QAU land to the PIDE,” said a member who requested not to be named.

However, another member of the syndicate told Dawn that on the first day a consensus could not be developed among the members and the matter would be taken up again on Tuesday. “It’s true, today the consensus could not be developed and there was a strong opposition to the proposal but we will discuss the issue again on May 5,” the member said.

The meeting, held at the QAU with Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Ashraf in the chair, was attended by the syndicate members, including Senator Farhatullah Babar, Haji Hanif Tayyab, Joint Education Adviser Ministry of Education Rafiq Tahir and HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed.

163 faculty members sign petition expressing reservations about proposal

Before the commencement of the meeting, a majority of the QAU faculty members through a signature campaign shared their reservations with the syndicate, opposing the university administration’s plan to sell the land to the PIDE.

The sources said out of the total 250 faculty members, 163 opposed the land sale in writing. They said the PIDE was set up on the QAU land as a research institute but in 2005 it started awarding degrees in various disciplines. Now, they added, the institute intended to expand its operation by purchasing 17 acres from the QAU to set up a fully-fledged university.

The faculty members also raised concerns over the five-day break in the syndicate meeting. The meeting should have continued on Friday as in the past almost all the syndicate meetings were held on the weekends. But this time, the syndicate will meet again on May 5.

“The land issue was the first agenda item and consensus could not be developed on it as a majority of the members rejected it. So, there is no question of discussing this point again,” said a faculty member, adding the university administration instead of closing the chapter was hell-bent on discussing it again on May 5.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2015

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