Higher seat of learning target of thieves

Islamabad:‘Knowledge is power.’ We being Urdu-medium students heard this dictum after 6th class. Then came to know that electricity is also a power. Rather it is Establishment of the scientific world.

And cables with 11KVA become higher source of power just like education, otherwise a forgotten, ignored and neglected field, becomes higher after entering boundaries of a university.

Quaid-i-Azam University is blamed to be No. 1 university of the country and is in the first 400 top university of the world. The condition of its classrooms, laboratories, libraries, hostels and faculty, however reflects something different. One must expect it in this Islamic Republic where education instead of Unesco-recommended 4 to 6 per cent of GDP, is doled out less than 1.5%. Even share of Zakat is 2.5%. Education is almost half of Zakat. That is why a former faculty of QAU, also an alumna, had asked the Vice-Chancellor Dr Niaz, rather all public-sector universities VCs or Rectors, to start collecting ‘Qurbani ki Khalain’ to meet their financial crises.

When Islamabadites were having a sigh of relief from scorching heat after some shower Friday morning, the Campus community was simmering due to power outage for six hours, a norm in the rural belt of ICT, University being part of it.

The reason this time, however, was different. The first rumour was that taking advantage of power breakdown, some thieves decamped with underground 11 KV high-tension cable. Later it transpired that the noble action was performed a week or so ago but Iesco ‘dasdi nai payee.’ The thieves removed the copper casing of the cable, obviously an expensive metal. Iesco just restored the connection by applying tapes and insulation material. The burglars must be qualified and equipped with technology to steal a live cable.

It is strange that the electricity supply vendor uses German silver in wires and copper in the outer casing. Wires are much efficient and good conductor of electricity.

The Friday rain water short-circuited it and the result was outage. Iesco is not that efficient to provide and replace cable swiftly and according to a QAU official, some ‘Jugarhs,’ in which this nation is well-versed, were applied to restore electric supply by noon. A permanent solution has yet to be found.

After cable theft, next step was to nab the culprits. CCTV cameras are an obvious ‘suhalat-kar’ in this exercise. It was discovered that many of the security cameras had been stolen in the meantime. ‘Lo kar lo gal’. Now university is encapsulating cameras with cages to prevent staling. Security cameras themselves need security.

Earlier some air conditioners were also stolen from the Campus buildings. Already, some teachers in their social media chats had suggested entrusting university security to monkeys roaming around so freely in its five housing colonies and departments while QAU is on holidays. Have a try VC-sahib!