Just a couple of days back, the prolonged protest of the University of Peshawar (UoP) employees witnessed another episode. The teaching and non-teaching staff were, once again, protesting against unpaid salaries and pensions, administrative mismanagement, and the deep fiscal crisis that has made them beg for federal takeover.
On the flip side, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, a few days back, on an occasion, promised the opening of a new university.
The contrast between the K-P government’s “expansionist” rhetoric and the “fiscal collapse” of its oldest institutions — such as the University of Peshawar, Islamia College and Gomal University — has become a major talking point. While the provincial government recently increased the higher education budget to Rs50 billion for 2025-26, the reality on the ground is a Rs15 billion deficit across 34 public universities.
It’s heartbreaking to see the K-P Higher Education Department building new campuses while existing ones cannot even afford whiteboard markers or electricity. Instead of being obsessed with ribbon cutting ceremonies of new buildings, which critics call a move to satisfy political constituencies, the government should focus on the universities facing major problems. Instead of building more brick-and-mortar campuses, the government must emphasise consolidation over expansion. Merging low-enrollment departments across universities to ensure efficient asset utilisation and redirecting funds for timely salaries and essential resources is the need for the hour.
The provincial government must take steps to resolve this fiscal mismanagement predicament. A province that cannot pay its professors today will find itself unable to educate its citizens tomorrow.
Manzar Hassan
Peshawa
