Conversion of PM House into university impossible without a law

ISLAMABAD: The conversion of the sprawling Prime Minister House into proposed Islamabad National University (INU) is unlikely to materialise without first having a law to provide legal cover to its establishment.

Over the past four months, Premier Imran Khan and other senior government leaders have announced for a number of times to make the Prime Minister House a university but an act of parliament is still missing to create the institution.

The establishment of the INU is aimed at reducing the gap between the government and public and no nation can make progress without quality education as education is imperative for progress and development, Prime Minister Imran Khan said while addressing a seminar on Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Pakistan, the Launch Conference for INU.

“A law will be promulgated very soon to set up the INU,” an official source told The News. An official of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) told this correspondent that the establishment of a federal public sector university requires approval of its charter from the parliament. The charter envisages the objective of the institution, major discipline of education and its organisational structure; he said adding that the university also needs a no objection certificate (NOC) from HEC prior to its establishment.

The official said that after the parliamentary approval of charter, the university also needs to fulfill the HEC requirements regarding faculty, facilities and funding to start functioning. Another official said a university is not brick and mortar, but first a legal statute is essential to establish it and then the facility - the syndicate and academic council.

According to the HEC website, there are a total of 21 federally chartered universities, which are in addition to various campuses of provincially chartered university campuses in Islamabad.

During a chat with The News, Dr Aqeel Bukhari, President of the Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) welcomed the priority given to higher education at the highest level of the government. However, he proposed that a research centre should be made at the new premises and be affiliated with the QAU, which is located in its vicinity.

Dr Bukhari said the new institution should not be left to the bureaucracy to manage otherwise there are apprehensions that the resources would be wasted. He pointed out that the QAU faces the annual deficit of Rs500/600 million. The endowment fund has depleted, he said and added that lack of money has been affecting the research work. “We are urging the government to provide the desired funds.”

The ASA chief suggested that the existing educational institutions should be strengthened. Already, the number of public sector universities has gone up to 280 from nearly eighty, he said and added that then there were issues of management, governance and human resource. It is stated that such a large number of universities do not have the required faculty. They should not become liabilities, he said.

Iftikhar Durrani, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Media, told The News that all the important questions relating to the INU and the Prime Minister House will be answered in the next few days by Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood and the HEC, which are dealing with the project.

The questions include: At what stage is the preparation of law to convert the Prime Minister House into university? Till what time will this law be finalized? Will it be issued through an ordinance or will a bill be tabled in parliament for approval? Will the new university be feasible in the red zone keeping in view security concerns? Will the prime minister’s residence be permanent where Imran Khan now lives even after the university will become functional or a new residence will be built for him and where? How much time will be required to make the university operational? What is the cost of new university as the premises will require changes to cater to the new needs? Can the Prime Minister House under the law be used for the purpose other than it was created?