Islamabad:The students of Islamabad Model College for Boys (IMCB) H-9 living in the far-flung areas are bound to pay heavy charges for accommodation facility due to the unavailability of the much-needed hostel facility for them.
After re-opening of the educational institutions since June 07, many of the students of the college living outside Islamabad remained unable to attend the classes physically for many days due to the lodging issue.
An officer at the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) on the condition of anonymity informed that the on-campus hostel of IMCB H-9 was occupied by Pakistan Sweet Home (PSH) on a fine evening in August 2012 without intimating the college principal.
At that time, there was no permanent Director-General at FDE working on the chair and one of the senior officers at FDE signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) of the deal between FDE and Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) to utilize the building as an orphan house PSH.
He said that an MOU requires signatures of both the parties to confirm the terms and conditions mentioned in the MOU but ironically, in this case only one party signed the MOU that was FDE and the other party (PBM) didn’t sign the MOU and took possession of the public building. “I don’t think a grade-19 officer has the power to sign an MoU and hand over the public building,” the source added.
An Assistant Professor of the college said, FDE handed over the hostel building to another department without taking into consideration the needs of the college students coming from Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, and other far-flung areas of the country.
Now after the re-opening of institutions, hundreds of students joined the colleges after a decrease in Covid-19 cases and had no option left but to reside in the private hostels and bear high charges.
An official of the college said, “The hostel offered excellent lodging facilities to the boarders and has the capacity to accommodate more than 200 students. There are 70 rooms, one big dining hall, and kitchen, a spacious common room, and the warden office in the hostel building.”
Another lecturer, Professor Tahir Mahmood said, “Hundreds of our students are forced to live in the private costly hostels even in the presence of hostel facility on the campus which is an injustice. Our students belong to the poor and low-paid segments of the society.” “They have to pay heavy sums for dirty rooms, unhygienic food and dirty washrooms in private hostels.
With hardly any learning atmosphere in private hostels, these students have to spend a lot of time traveling to and from the college,” he said while talking to this news agency. He urged the concerned ministry to take the notice of this injustice and get the hostel building vacated to accommodate the students of the college.