PHOTO: EXPRESS
This was disclosed during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology which met in the Conference Hall of COMSATS University in Islamabad on Thursday.
During the meeting, COMSATS Rector Raheel Qamar briefed the committee that the varsity’s operating budget has jumped from Rs64 million in 2000 when it had 277 students to Rs8.3 billion now with some 36,000 students and eight research centres. Its development budget of Rs772 million now dwarfs its initial budget of Rs36 million.
Qamar said that in the fiscal year 2019-20, they had received a grant of just Rs1.466 billion from the federal government against a demand of Rs2.2 billion. The difference of Rs734 million has been partially adjusted by cutting the stipend budget from Rs1 billion to Rs700 million.
He added that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had stopped providing development funds to the varsity in 2008. But the deduction in the grant had now made it difficult for them to pay salaries of employees for the next month.
Providing a breakup of its expenses, the rector said that 80 per cent of the total budget of the varsity is spent on paying salaries of staff, adding that inflation and increments in salaries had made their situation dire. He added that an 11 per cent cut in funding represents a loss of Rs252 million and together it compounds their funds' shortfall to Rs575 million.
One casualty of the budget cuts has been Prime Minister’s programme for students from rural areas.
Further, the COMSATS rector told the committee that the varsity was been bearing Rs267 million annually in transport and accommodation expenses of some 1,701 students of the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF). So far, the WWF owes them Rs1.3 billion and has caused the varsity’s Lahore campus to run into deficits. Qamar, however, clarified that the adjustment of the students as part of a contract with WWF when COMSATS leased the fund’s building.
WWF Secretary Aamir Hasan told the committee that they have acquired a breakup of the dues from COMSATS under which the varsity had to pay them Rs221 million while the federal government had given the university a cheque of Rs1.8 million.
He further explained that the governing body of WWF had been dysfunctional for a year which delayed the process of releasing money. With a new governing body having been constituted this month, soon they will retire the remaining sum.
The WWF secretary further said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has assured them that Rs63 million will be released within a week which will help pay off some of the debt. However, Hasan complained that COMSATS has hiked transport fares and hostel rent.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry told the committee that the cut in funding came because the government wants to make educational institutions in Pakistan self-sufficient.
He added that in 2000, there were only 57 universities in the country. This number has now swelled to 200. Furthermore, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed them to focus more on improving education in schools.
At this, the committee’s chairman Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan said that the government should not cut grants for higher educational institutions or else they will be compelled to go on strike.
Senator Mushtaq further suggested that educational institutions must be given more time to generate their resources.
The committee was told that a university lecturer is paid Rs40,000 per month, at which the body recommended to doubling this figure.
The committee’s chairman stated that varsities such as the National University for Science and Technology (NUST), Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) and COMSATS must be aided on an emergency basis so that they do not face any difficulties in their operations.
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