Financial crunch: SMIU asks Sindh govt and HEC to grant funds

University approves budget worth Rs165 million for its next fiscal year.

KARACHI: The Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) has put a demand of Rs165 million for its next fiscal year in order to meet the needs of its five departments and two model schools.

The budget for the fiscal year 2013-14 was approved by the university’s finance and planning committee in its first meeting with the vice-chancellor, Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh, on Sunday.

The finance director informed the committee that HEC had not provided any grant to the university so far and all the expenditures were being met from the grants given by the Sindh government.

The HEC representative said that although the commission itself was passing through financial hardships, efforts would still be made to support the institute.

The committee resolved to approach the higher authorities of HEC to play their role in providing enough financial resources to the university during its initial years.

The committee, in retrospect, also approved the budget for the current fiscal year of Rs130 million. The amount of Rs100 million allocated by the Sindh government, however, created a deficit of Rs30 million in current fiscal.



The vice-chancellor Dr Shaikh informed the committee that he along with the vice-chancellors of other universities had met Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in December last year, who agreed to provide additional Rs30 million to SMIU to cover its recurring deficit.

In order to meet immediate development needs of the university, said Dr Shaikh, the chief minister had announced a special grant of Rs150 million, which was still pending.

The committee requested the Sindh government to provide the promised amounts to SMIU on priority basis in order to save it from financial constraints.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2013.