ISLAMABAD: Proposed Daanish Education Trust will run the affairs of Daanish University of Emerging Sciences and Daanish Schools through Board of Trustees (BoT) and Board of Directors (BOD).

Sources in the education ministry said that the federal government is finalising members of BoT and BoD for the university. They said that the education ministry had got the Daanish Education Trust (DET) name provisionally registered with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as per Companies Act 2017.

Sources said the draft of the university has also been prepared and has been shared with the law division and planning minister for final review.

Sources said the Ministry of Education had also moved a summary to Cabinet Division for placing it before the next cabinet meeting for technical supplementary grant.

“After approval of the summary, the government will transfer 190 million pounds, the UK government had seized from a Pakistani property tycoon and returned to Pakistan. Out of this amount we will construct Daanish University and remaining amount will be spent on construction of Daansih Schools,” said a source in the ministry on condition of anonymity.

He said that a separate Project Management Unit (PMU) is being set up in the ministry for execution of the university project.

“The Federal Cabinet had already approved allocation of 100 acre land in sector H-16 while other steps are also being taken for early start of this project, once started, right after one year we will be in a position to start classes,” the official source said. He said that a meeting on this project was also held on Friday at PM office and the ministry was directed to further expedite the process of starting construction work.

The project is being started at a time, when country’s public sector universities, including top ranked Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), are struggling to meet their expenditures.

On the other hand, public sector universities in the country have been protesting to get funds as Higher Education Commission (HEC) is facing a shortfall of Rs60 billion.

Sources said the HEC had sought Rs125 billion for the fiscal year 2024-25, but got only Rs65 billion and as a result the allocation per student further decreased in the recurring grant from Rs67,528 in 2018-19 to Rs50,956 in 2023-24.

The country’s higher education sector gets less than 2pc of GDP and recently parliamentary committee recommended to the government to enhance the budgetary allocation to at least 4pc of the GDP in the fiscal year 2025-26. “There is no need of new university as existing ones are financially struggling, if government wants to set up Daanish University, it should also provide adequate funds to all public sector universities,” said a faculty member of Islamabad based public sector university.

Prime Mnister Shehbaz Sharif wants early completion of teh university project. During his visit to the university project site in sector H-16 on March 15, he had stated that this university would not only become a model in the country but would also carve a niche among the world’s top educational centres on the basis of quality of education, research and development of applied sciences.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2025