Senate committee calls for release of funds to IIUI

Courtesy: Daily Times, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\22\story_22-7-2008_pg11_9

Philanthropists urged to help university management overcome financial problems

Staff Report ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Standing Committee on Education on Monday urged the government to immediately release more funds to the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), especially its recurrent budget, as it was facing severe economic crunch.

During a visit to the IIUI, the committee members took serious note to delay in the release of third quarter fund to the university and assured to take up the matter with the quarters concerned.

“This university should be a model in the entire Muslim world but this objective could only be achieved when it is provided with adequate funds and complete autonomy,” the standing committee observed.

The committee members asked the IIUI to become a corner of excellence by bringing about qualitative improvement and acquiring services of a highly qualified faculty.

The Senate body lauded the steps taken by the university to spread the light of education and its commitment to quality education, despite the odds it had been facing.

Philanthropists: The committee asked the government to implement four-year undergraduate programme all over the country to ensure uniformity and consistency. It also urged the philanthropists and affluent sections of the society to help management of the university overcome its current difficulties.

Earlier, Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui, the IIUI president, informed the visiting legislators that there were more than 14,000 students studying in the university, which had nearly 250 faculty members. Around 1,500 students from 46 countries, including 550 Chinese students, were also studying at the university. The number of students might reach 30,000 within 10 years, he added.

Crisis: Siddiqui said the present resource crunch was so severe that the university had to borrow Rs 70 million from banks on high interest rates to pay salaries to the teachers, as the third quarter fund was yet to be released.

Deans and Heads of different departments of the university told Senators the university was given only Rs 30.978 million out of the total quarterly grant of Rs 97.682 million.

The committee came to know that salaries for the months of April and May were paid after withdrawing Rs 64.5 million from pension funds, students funds and reserve funds on loan basis.

The committee members expressed concerns over the cut to the university’s budgetary allocation and assured they would pursue with the government to restore the grant immediately.