PPP questions allocating 190 million pounds for a new university in Islamabad

Liaquat Ali

Islamabad: Former Senator and president human rights cell of PPP Farhatullah Babar said Monday that the decision to build yet another university in Islamabad with the 190 million pounds that the British government had seized from a businessman and returned to Pakistan is whimsical, flawed, and strongly condemned.

In a statement, he said the decision taken behind closed doors without debate at a time of domestic economic volatility, rising debt servicing, shrinking international development aid, changing donor priorities and Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces burning the decision reeks of a dictatorial mindset, further distorting the already distorted public finance system in the country.

What is the rationale of spending 70 billion rupees to build yet another university when the existing universities, facing a shortfall of 60 billion rupees, are facing internal turmoil due to non-payment of salaries and pensions and some on the verge of closure, he said

The people of Pakistan still do not know the mystery behind the 190 million pounds transferred from the UK to Pakistan, the politics and political engineering behind it. The abrupt decision to build a university with this money has only compounded the mystery and raises many questions that need answers.

If at all the 190 million pounds legitimately belong to the government of Pakistan, then it can be legitimately demanded that it be spent on education in all provinces, and not merely on building one university in Islamabad.

Twenty-six million children in all provinces are out of school, and the existing public sector universities in the provinces are in financial crisis, resulting in frustration, discontent, strikes, and brain drain.

Who is a greater and legitimate claimant to this money; a new university on one hundred acres of land in Islamabad or putting out of school children into schools in all provinces, providing basic services to the tens of thousands of existing schools and rebuilding schools destroyed in floods?

It is the prerogative and responsibility of the parliament to thoroughly discuss the matter, seek answers to the questions, and make an informed decision about it. The failure of the parliament to take up this urgent public matter will only undermine its legitimacy as peoples’ representatives, he added.