PESHAWAR, May 2: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has ordered immediate release of Rs12.5 million to the Peshawar University. He issued the order during a meeting held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here on Monday to review the fee structure of schools run by the Peshawar University.

The funds have been allocated on the recommendations of a committee to help the university smoothly run its affairs and, particularly, to give relief to it for supporting the fees of poor students.

The meeting had a threadbare discussion, reviewed fee structure of the schools of the university and decided that the university will not unilaterally raise admission and other fees and will go by the recommendations of the committee constituted for the purpose.

Speaking at the meeting, the chief minister directed the vice-chancellor of the university to submit a detailed report of poor students of the university schools so that the government could provide funds to the university to support admission and other fees of the students.

He made it clear that the promised funds should not be availed by the students from economically sound families.

He said that a raise in fee structure by the university would be against the provincial government’s policy of providing all access to quality education and insisted that the university should not be turned into a money making machine.

The chief minister said that he would contact the Higher Education Commission along with the governor to plead the university’s case for provision of more resources so that poor but talented students could face no problem in acquiring education.

He said that he would ask the federal government to provide special grant to the university and the quarters concerned to plan education-friendly commercial activities on the university’s property so that there could be a perennial earning source to support the financial engagements of the university.

He expressed the hope that the university would evolve an efficient resource management mechanism and would support the poor and deserving students.

He said that the Peshawar University, the Islamia College and its schools had produced the men of head and heart who had earned fame at national and international levels.

He said that the Peshawar University had produced educated manpower that had been serving in defence and productive sectors and were an asset for the society, and that was the real earning by the university.

The chief minister highlighted his government’s education reforms agenda, saying that it had declared education free up to matric and was providing free books to the students of primary and secondary schools.

There is a plan to offer stipend to students from poor families to ensure their enrolment in schools, Mr Durrani said.

He said that his government’s mission was to ensure provision of quality education in government-run institutes, adding that investment in education meant investment for future.

He said that there should be a collective approach to ensure running of education institutions in consonance with the people’s aspirations.

He said that his government would support educational institutions without any discrimination whether they belonged to the federal or provincial government.

He said: “If we invest in education, it gives us refined and educated people who contribute to development of the country. We have to be elastic and magnanimous in our decisions if the decisions harm interests of the people. However, we cannot be elastic on merit and quality education.”

The chief minister was optimistic that together they would find out solution to the most complicated problems if they moved with sincerity.

Provincial ministers Fazle Ali Haqqani, Amanullah Haqqani, Kashif Azam, the vice-chancellor, secretaries of education, planning and finance departments, principal of Islamia College, district nazim and others attended the meeting.—PPI