PESHAWAR: The future of the multi-billion project of Jalozai campus of the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar hangs in the balance for security reasons, according to sources.

They said that construction of the buildings of civil, electrical and mechanical engineering departments was completed a year ago but academic activities couldn`t be initiated there.

Sources said that university administration considered security environment in the surroundings of the UET campus unfit for students, teachers and other employees.

Last year, after the completion of all arrangements, the UET administration awarded admission to 120 students in three disciplines, 40 in each discipline, they said.

However, the three departments couldn`t be made functional and classes were arranged for the students at the UET main campus in Peshawar.

Similarly, the UET administration was ready to award admissions to an-other 120 students in the same three disciplines at Jalozai campus but like their seniors the students would continue studying in UET Peshawar instead of Jalozai campus, sources said.

The number of the additional students would reach 240 which would be a burden on the infrastructure of the UET Peshawar, they said.

Besides the civil, electrical and mechanical departments, the multi-billion project of Jalozai campus was still in progress as buildings of several other departments were under construction, sources said.

UET Vice-chancellor Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, when contacted, said that everything was ready to start classes in the three disciplines at Jalozai campus.

He said that students were awarded admission last year, however, the idea of stating classes at Jalozai campus was dropped as security situation was not suitable for the students. Classes for the admitted students were arranged at the UET main campus in Peshawar, he said.

The UET vice-chancellor said that chief minister and inspector general of police were also requested for providing additional security to Jalozai campus a month ago but they were yet to respond to the request.

`Now we have decided to hire 20 guards of private security companies to provide security to the students andteachers,` he said.

Mr Gilani said that the campus would be made operational at the start of the next year.

A senior official of the Pabbi police station, when contacted, said that apparently there was no security threat to anyone in the area where the Jalozai campus was located.

But the internally displaced persons from Bara, Khyber Agency could be seen in the surroundings of the university campus as they were camped there for the last five years, he said.

The official said that the UET administration had demanded around 70 policemen for security of the Jalozai campus.

However, he said that they couldn`t provide such a large number of policemen for the security of the campus.

`We can depute only 10 police constables for the security of the campus as we are already short of manpower,` he said.

The official said that usually policemen deployed at the university campuses across the province were paid from the university budget but the UET didn`t make such commitment with them.

During several meetings with the police on security, he said, the UET officials had also shown interest in establishing a separate police station for the campus, but currently they were silent on this issue for unknown reasons.