Ill-planned: AIOU Gilgit campus plan runs into snags

Officials of regional govt, locals raise objection about location of the building.

ISLAMABAD:

The plan to construct a regional campus of the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in Gilgit city has run into snags, as government officials and locals have raised objections about its current location.

The university’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir Ahmad Sangi had to face an embarrassing situation when he along with Gilgit-Baltistan Governor Pir Karam Ali Shah reached the site on the bank of Gilgit River to perform the ground-breaking ceremony of the campus.

The locals and officials of G-B government expressed skepticism about location of the campus, saying the building, if constructed, would be at the risk of floods in the summer.

The governor also argued that such a huge building could not be constructed on the bank of the river.



Sources told The Express Tribune that the university officials did not carry out the feasibility report of the site at all before approving the construction.

The 10-kanal land for the construction of the campus was allocated in 2011.

“As soon as I got off my vehicle along with other staff members, I realised that the site was not feasible for a university building,” said one of members of the group, who visited Gilgit with the Sangi.

The sources said that members of the G-B Legislative Assembly and notables of the area exchanged hot words with the AIOU officials, questioning how they could put their children at risk by sending them to a building facing the perils of floods.

The sources said after the unpleasant episode, a committee was constituted comprising local journalists and notables, to look for an alternative land for the building.

Meanwhile, University Project Director Dr Attaullah Shah blamed the GB government for the aberration. “We had a land near the Karakoram International University but the G-B government allocated us the current land on the bank of the river without consulting us,” he claimed.

He said that the Rs90-million-project has been shelved after the governor and the locals raised objections.

AIOU Registrar Muhammad Bashir Chaudhry claimed that they were constructing the building in the same location and he had no knowledge of any problem with the site.

“There is no issue with the current site and a letter has also been written to the G-B government to reclaim the land from the KIU. We will also soon construct another regional campus in Skardu,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2013.