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Gilgit university marred by mismanagement, lack of facilities

By Our Correspondent 2014-10-14
GILGIT: The Karakoram International University (KIU) has failed to fulfill the higher education aspirations of the students of the region even after 12 years of its establishment due to tussles and lobbying for power among faculty and administrative staff.

Former military ruler Gen retired Pervez Musharraf had laid down the foundation stone of the university when he visited the region in 2002 on demand of the people that the area was remote andpoorstudentscouldnottravelto other cities to continue their higher studiesafterintermediate.

There are currently 3,000 students enrolled in KIU from seven districts of GB.

The students are concerned over lack of facilities in the varsity, including transportation, accommodation, sports, infrastructure, and an updated library.

Arif Billa, a BS student of English literature, told Dawn that that KIU faculty, administration and even the vice chancellor indulged in politics and had no interest in ensuring quality education to students and resolving other problems.

He said that as the universityoffered only 16 subjects, majority of students had no option to study subjects of their interest. `The university is not offering admissions in law, and engineering, which are most liked by students,` he pointed out.

He said that mining and tourism related subjects were need of the area, but unfortunately the poorstudentscouldnorgeteducation in these subjects either. He regretted that there were no private educationalinstitutes in the region to fill the education gap.

Asad Ali, a BS environmental science student, said that majority of faculty members were visiting fellows who were not sincereto their job.

He said the university had only one library which failed to handle thousands students as it lacked both space and books. `Mostly the books the faculty recommends for research work are not available at the library,` he lamented.

Interestingly, the map of the globe displayed at the library is older than the building itself, which shows Bangladesh as the eastern part of Pakistan.

Besides, the varsity has only three computer labs, of which two are reserved for IT classes and the student from other departments have no to accessinternet facility.

Transportation is also another big issue facing the students as the varsity has only six buses. Due to lack of buses, students coming from central Gilgit, Danyore, Nomal and Jalalabad cannot reach the varsity on time.

Similarly, accommodation is yet another problem for students, especially for those coming from distant districts, who have to live in rented rooms and private hostels. The KIU has only one girls hostel.

Furthermore, the KIU is without any sports ground and study tours are rare.

Meanwhile, a university offi-cial admitted to Dawn on condition of anonymity that the varsity lacked basic facilities. He said that university was marred by irregularities, corruption and mismanagement. He blamed the successive vice-chancellors for the mess.

The official said that there was no check on the performance of VC.

He said that the chancellor of the KIU was president of Pakistan unlike the provincial governors as chancellors of varsities in the provinces.

He added that students and people of the region had no access to KIU chancellor for resolutionof their problems.

He pointed out that only once a chancellor of KIU, Pervez Musharraf in this case, had visited the university in 2002.

The official said that former VC Dr Najma Najam was alleged to have made 200 illegal appointments and committed massive corruption.

Unfortunately, he said nothing had been changed in the university since the new VC M Asif Khan assumed charge a couple of months ago. `He had made tall claims that he would reverse the illegal appointments and root out corruption, but to no avail,` said the of ficial.