Farhatullah Babar questions allocation of £190m for new university in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Former senator and President Human Rights Cell of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Farhatullah Babar has questioned the decision to build yet another university in Islamabad with the 190 million pounds that the British government had seized from a business tycoon and returned to the Pakistan government, saying that allocating 190 million pounds for a new university in Islamabad is “whimsical, flawed, and strongly condemned”.“The decision taken behind closed doors without debate at a time of domestic economic volatility, rising debt servicing, shrinking international development aid, changing donor priorities and Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces burning the decision reeks of a dictatorial mindset, further distorting the already distorted public finance system in the country,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“What is the rationale of spending 70 billion rupees to build yet another university when the existing universities, facing a shortfall of 60 billion rupees, are facing internal turmoil due to non-payment of salaries and pensions and some on the verge of closure,” the PPP leader asked.

He said the people of the country still did not know the mystery behind the 190 million pounds transferred from the UK to Pakistan, and “the politics and political engineering behind it”.

He said the abrupt decision to build a university with this money had only compounded the mystery and raised many questions that needed answers. “If at all the 190 million pounds legitimately belong to the Pakistan government, then it can be legitimately demanded that it be spent on education in all provinces, and not merely on building one university in Islamabad,” he said.

The president PPP Human Rights Cell said 26 million children in all provinces happen to be out of school, and the existing public sector universities in the provinces were in financial crisis, resulting in frustration, discontent, strikes, and brain drain. “Who is a greater and legitimate claimant to this money; a new university on one hundred acres of land in Islamabad or putting out-of-school children into schools in all provinces, providing basic services to the tens of thousands of existing schools and rebuilding schools destroyed in floods,” he said.

Babar said it was the prerogative and responsibility of the parliament to thoroughly discuss the matter, seek answers to the questions, and make an informed decision about it. “The failure of the parliament to take up this urgent public matter will only undermine its legitimacy as people’s representatives,” he remarked.