PTI, MQM-P blame CM for delay in building Hyderabad varsity

Criticising the Pakistan People Party (PPP)-led SIndh government for not allowing establishment of the Hyderabad University, leaders of two major opposition parties of Sindh – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) – on Monday alleged that the Sindh chief minister was sitting on the summary since July last year and he was the only hurdle in the way of much-needed varsity in the second largest city of the province.

When the MQM-P had announced its support for the PTI in forming the central government in 2018, a clause pertaining to setting up a university in Hyderabad was included in the nine-point memorandum of understanding between the two political parties.

In April 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation of the University of Hyderabad in an event in Islamabad where, without naming the PPP, he said political elements should not impede efforts for establishing the varsity.

Addressing a joint press conference in the Sindh Assembly, Opposition Leader Haleem Adil Sheikh of the PTI and MQM-P parliamentary leader in the assembly Kanwar Naveed Jameel said the charter of the university in Hyderabad had already been passed, the federal government had tagged Rs1.7 billion for it and the Higher Education Commision was also prepared for it but the Sindh CM was had been showing his enmity towards education in Hyderabad by sitting on the summary.

“The Hyderabad University has been gathering dust in the office of the Sindh chief minister since July last year and till now he [chief minister] has not signed this important summary,” said Sheikh, who is also the PTI central vice-president.

Sheikh asked if the Sindh chief minister was delaying the university project because he wanted to ensure his share of kickbacks in the project. “Setting up Hyderabad University is a matter of education of our children,” he said. He added that since the powers to run the universities of the province were transferred to the CM, corruption had increased in the varsities’ affairs. “Transfers and postings of vice-chancellors and officers are made on bribery.”

MQM-P leader Jameel said that after the passage of the 18th amendment, education was a provincial matter. “In the previous government, the MQM-P requested then prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the Hyderabad university and he allocated funds. When the Imran Khan government came, the university was inaugurated,” he said.

“Now the federal government is asking the Sindh government to give land for setting up the university and the federal government would pay for the land, but for the last two-and-a-half years, this matter has been put on the back burner,” said the MQM-P leader. He alleged that the PPP’s Sindh government had been showing enmity towards urban centres of the province. “PPP leaders, including ministers in the past, said on record that the Hyderabad university would be established over their dead bodies.”

For the past several years, the MQM-P has been leading the politics on the issue of setting up a university in Hyderabad. To this end, it has moved several bills in the Sindh Assembly as well.

Sheikh said the PM in his recent visit to Sukkur announced a package of Rs446billion for the city and a total package of Rs1,200billion had already been announced for Sindh by the federal government. “Sindh has been given more than Rs8,780 billion but only development in Sindh is so far seen in the sector of corruption,” he remarked.