KP Govt is Selling Universities’ Land
The government’s proposal to sell property that was initially purchased for colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has caused a great deal of controversy, and opposition leaders have vowed to use all available methods to thwart it.
The province government feels obliged to sell underutilised university land in order to meet its financial obligations, according to sources from the Higher Education Department. The province administration is under pressure to settle an outstanding landowner debt of Rs. 25 billion.
5,000 kanals of land were acquired for the Bacha Khan Greater Campus in Mardan during the Awami National Party’s (ANP) administration. This comprised land for Bacha Khan Medical College (1,000 kanals), UET Mardan (400 kanals), the Amir Mohammad Khan Campus of Agriculture University Peshawar (1,488 kanals), and Abdul Wali Khan University (2,000 kanals). A considerable amount of this land is still undeveloped, and landowners are still due money.
Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, the leader of the ANP and a former chief minister, harshly denounced the land auction, referring to it as an attempt to sell national assets. “The ANP and other opposing parties will vehemently oppose this decision. The future of our next generation cannot be sold off by the government, according to Hoti. Additionally, he charged that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was selling off university land while breaking pledges to turn the Chief Minister House into a university and the Governor House into a public library. In an effort to exert pressure on the government to overturn the decision, Hoti also said that he would call a political jirga that would include PTI representatives.
The governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Chancellor of Universities, Faisal Kareem Kundi, expressed his displeasure as well, critiquing the province government’s lack of vision in regards to education policy. Declaring, “The PTI has set fixed prices for everything, and soon they will set a price for the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar,” he denounced the absence of chancellors of universities from important decisions.
In a similar vein, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) province president Syed Ali Shah Bacha denounced the action and declared that the PPP would contest the sale of university land through a writ suit in the Peshawar High Court.
Meena Khan Afridi, the minister of higher education, defended the sale by saying it was required to pay off the Rs. 25 billion in arrears. Afridi made it clear that only land associated with these loans would be auctioned and that institutions only needed 120 kanals of land in accordance with Higher Education Commission (HEC) requirements. Therefore, university activities would not be impacted by the sale of surplus land.
Content writer, educationist, teacher, researcher, social media manager, and a SEO manager from lahore. She has been working as a freelance academic and non-academic writer for more than 20 years now. She has a passion to learn new things and has a knack for writing and she combines both things to produce write ups she pours her heart out in.