CHITRAL, Nov 17: The leaders of Muttahida Talaba Mahaz (MTM) Chitral have demanded the government take notice of the anomaly in the establishment of the Chitral campus of Abdul Wali Khan University which is against article 246 of the constitution of the country.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the student leaders Maqsoodur Rahman, Muhammad Adeel, Inamul Haq and others said that the controversial status of the campus can cause problems for the students and their parents in future. They said the university had been established in Mardan under university act and it cannot establish its campus in any district situated in provincially administered tribal area (PATA) which is governed by regulation.
They said AWKU had not taken any no-objection certificate (NOC) from SBBU in whose territorial jurisdiction the district was situated and all this made the status of the university further controversial. Demanding the amalgamation of the Chitral campus of the university with that of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Univseristy in Chitral, the student leaders contended that the university was established under regulation.
The student leaders said the disciplines in the campus can be easily started in the SBBU campus and it will lead to the establishment of a university in Chitral which has been the long cherished dream of the people of Chitral. The MTM leaders also advised MNA Shahzada Iftikharuddin for strengthening the SBBU campus in Chitral instead of opening three sub-campuses of Federal Urdu University in Chitral. They said that opening of university campuses should not be opened in streets like public schools otherwise the mushroom growth of university campuses will badly impair the standard of higher education.
They also demanded the chief justices of Peshawar High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the anomaly of Abdul wali Khan Univesity to save the future of the students.
The problem is of severe nature which must be addressed right at this time. The very establishment of the university campus in Chitral was a futile practice where some unnecessary and redundant disciplines of M.A in political science or economics have been started. The people of Chitral, specially the academia are in unison in their demand that the SBBU campus should be shifted here which will be upgraded into a full fledged university in near future.
Our MNA is humbly requested to ponder over this news seriously because mushroom growth of peripheral campuses will foster low quality education. Secondly if resources are dispersed then none of the campuses would be able to develop into a full-fledged University in many years, rather decades to come and thus we are unintentionally or deliberately following a rule “be divided and be ruled”.
I am flabbergasted to see that no one commented on this issue which is deeply connected with the future of many Chitralis. If our commentators were unaware earlier then their silence makes sense but what makes them silent now, attaching no importance to the legality of education, some personal political interest or anything like that? I cannot single out any logical reason because none of these is important enough to subdue the sense of responsibility of an educated Chitrali.