Delayed compensation: Militancy-hit students yet to avail fee exemption
Students say they are sent from one department to the next without answers.
PESHAWAR:
Students at the Agriculture University Peshawar affected by militancy, have yet to be compensated despite the provision of funds.
They asked the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and the administration of the university to give them the compensation they deserved.
Talking to The Express Tribune, the students at Buner Agricultural University explained that in December 2009 a letter had been issued by the HEC, titled ‘financial impact of exemption of fee and other charges’, in respect to IDP students from Swat, Buner, Malakand, Shangla, Dir, Fata, Frontier Regions and Chitral. The letter said that over Rs79 million had been allocated for them. According to the notification, over Rs11 million were for the students of Swat.
Students complained that many in the Malakand division were also affected by the military operation but had not been provided any aid. Gomal University, Abdul Wali Khan University, Hazara University and the University of Peshawar have released funds for the students of Buner and other affected areas, but the Agricultural University had yet to provide the compensation despite three years having passed.
A list of 202 students of Buner, who were selected to receive the funds, was displayed on the notice board but no one gave heed to resolve this issue. Asad Khan, a BBA student, said that when they took the issue to the Vice Chancellor of the university, Bahadar Khan Marwat, he asked them to contact the finance department. When they visited the department the finance director told them that they could only help when the HEC released the funds. When the students told him that Swat and Buner students were also affected, they replied that they have compensated them on the directives of the K-P chief minister and advised them to contact their concerned member of national or provincial assemblies.
Khan added that they have contacted K-P Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak several times, but due to his busy schedule he could not meet them.
The students have demanded the administration provide funds or they would stage protests.
“They are depriving us of our right to this money,” another student of the Agricultural University, Waqas Ali said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2012.
Students at the Agriculture University Peshawar affected by militancy, have yet to be compensated despite the provision of funds.
They asked the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and the administration of the university to give them the compensation they deserved.
Talking to The Express Tribune, the students at Buner Agricultural University explained that in December 2009 a letter had been issued by the HEC, titled ‘financial impact of exemption of fee and other charges’, in respect to IDP students from Swat, Buner, Malakand, Shangla, Dir, Fata, Frontier Regions and Chitral. The letter said that over Rs79 million had been allocated for them. According to the notification, over Rs11 million were for the students of Swat.
Students complained that many in the Malakand division were also affected by the military operation but had not been provided any aid. Gomal University, Abdul Wali Khan University, Hazara University and the University of Peshawar have released funds for the students of Buner and other affected areas, but the Agricultural University had yet to provide the compensation despite three years having passed.
A list of 202 students of Buner, who were selected to receive the funds, was displayed on the notice board but no one gave heed to resolve this issue. Asad Khan, a BBA student, said that when they took the issue to the Vice Chancellor of the university, Bahadar Khan Marwat, he asked them to contact the finance department. When they visited the department the finance director told them that they could only help when the HEC released the funds. When the students told him that Swat and Buner students were also affected, they replied that they have compensated them on the directives of the K-P chief minister and advised them to contact their concerned member of national or provincial assemblies.
Khan added that they have contacted K-P Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak several times, but due to his busy schedule he could not meet them.
The students have demanded the administration provide funds or they would stage protests.
“They are depriving us of our right to this money,” another student of the Agricultural University, Waqas Ali said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2012.