 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| SMIC faculty to protest KCCI proposal |
|
|
|
Thursday, November 26, 2009
By our correspondent
Karachi
The Sindh Madressatul Islam College (SMIC) faculty will protest if the college is commercialised, the SMIC administration said on Wednesday, in response to news items regarding the “adoption” of the college by the Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
The Quaid’s alma mater has played a historic role in modern education for the past 124 years, they said. The SMIC faculty members have also requested the President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan to take notice of such moves.
The SMIC administration said that the institution was upgraded to the level of college in 1943 by its old alumnus, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Later, this status was “snatched” from it, they said. It was reinstated to the level of college in 1994 because of the efforts of its principal Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh, the SMIC administration said. In 1974, the then-prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto transferred control of the SMI from the Sindh government to the federal education ministry, on the grounds that the SMI was considered a national heritage.
Today, about 1,600 male and female students are study at the SMIC, from class one to intermediate. The institute has three modern computer laboratories, science laboratories, a Jinnah Museum, the Hassanally Effendi Library, a fine arts gallery, and other modern facilities, and is “considered one of the best public sector institutions of the country,” they further said.
The KCCI should first make non-functional schools operational, if it wishes to play any role in the education sector in Sindh, the SMIC administration said, adding that there are around 1,300 non-functional schools in Pakistan; 700 of them are in Sindh alone.
The KCCI can also set up new institutions in the outskirts of Karachi, instead of “trying to deface the historic institution” by “trying to convert it into a commercial complex,” they said.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
