Reforms launched at Islamia College University

PESHAWAR: Islamia College University (ICU) Vice-Chancellor Dr Habib Ahmed on Saturday hoped that the institution would be included in the top 1,000 Asian universities in the near future as the administration had started reforms at the grassroots.

Talking to The News, Dr Habib Ahmed said the ICU had no registration with the ranking agencies till recently. 

“We obtained ResearchGate ID for the ICU and got it registered with the QS World Universities Ranking. The registration process is not yet complete,” he said.

The vice-chancellor disclosed that the QS World Universities Ranking had ranked ICU 9,922 in the world.

He claimed the institution was facing severe administrative problems when he took over the affairs, adding that the prime issue was lack of trust among the employees.

“During the first week of appointment, I contacted all the stakeholders to seek their support for strengthening the institution,” he said, adding that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman informed him that two projects of the ICU had lapsed and the money should be returned to the HEC forthwith.

Dr Habib said he had requested the HEC chairman for the release of Rs2 billion but the chairman declined the request.

The HEC chairman responded that ICU would not get the amount as the projects that were approved in 2008 and 2013 were closed. “I convinced the HEC chairman that he would not get complaints about the projects’ completion,” he claimed.

The first project approved in 2008 was construction of Ahmed Faraz Block that had a total allocation of Rs476 million and should have been completed in 2014. The classes in the block started previous year after its completion. 

“Another project of the construction of hostels for boys and girls almost lapsed. People had received salaries for one year and the progress on the project was negligible. However, HEC extended support for revival of the project through the planning commission,” he said.

The ICU received the entire amount of the project, Rs208.4 million, and it was approved in April 2015 and hopefully it would be handed over to the ICU in April.

After the work on the first project started, the HEC trust on ICU was restored. We constituted a team for preparing a proposal of Rs1.97 billion in a week and submitted it to the HEC, which approved Rs1.43 billion for the construction of academic blocks, administration block, VC Secretariat and residence and 45 houses for staff, research labs, OMEC Centre and Social Sciences block.

He said the project would complete the transformation of the institution from college to a university.

Dr Habib Ahmed said the OMEC centre would the first of its kind in Pakistan.

He said the president had approved Rs50 million for the establishment of a guesthouse of the ICU, adding that the university had also placed an order for purchase of seven buses for the institution. One of these buses had been designed for survey and research purposes, he said.

The vice-chancellor said the University of Peshawar (UoP) had most of the assets of the ICU, adding that he had two options for making ICU financially strong.

The options included litigation against the UoP or making efforts for securing resources for the ICU from the government.

He added that he opted for the second option as UoP was also using the resources for nation building.

He disclosed that the ICU assets had management issues, adding that the current management has organised the efforts for resolving these issues.

Regarding the ICU properties in Qissa Khwani bazaar, he said that the rent had been revised but it was not in accordance with the market rate.

He said that some of the shops in the bazaar had been sealed for being sub-leased by tenants while some of the shops there were in dilapidated condition and that the university would construct commercial plazas there.  

Dr Habib claimed that HEC Smart University Project of approximately Rs1 billion was on the verge of completion.

 “The HEC would maintain it for seven years. Under the project, the university would have 1000 cameras and would be accessible to anyone anywhere in the world.”

He said that establishment of the Faculty of Technology and Engineering Sciences in general university was one of his numerous achievements.