Colleges on government’s radar for privatisation

Despite severe concerns shown by educators and educational bodies, the Punjab government has initiated the privatisation of government colleges after schools across the province. Around 37 colleges of the Rawalpindi division will be included in the privatisation process. A total of 168 colleges are slated for privatisation out of 550 colleges throughout the province. The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) has opposed selling government colleges to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and announced challenging the government’s decision in the Lahore High Court (LHC). The Maryam-led government has also decided to return the colleges taken into national custody, including the historic Rawalpindi Gordon College, to their old owners. The privatisation plan also includes the sale of nine colleges, including the Post Graduate Girls College on Railway Road, built by former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in Rawalpindi. Additionally, both the girls' and boys' degree colleges constructed by former provincial law minister Basharat Raja in his hometown of Dhamyal have also been included in the list of colleges slated for privatisation. The colleges selected for privatisation include 12 institutions in the Rawalpindi district, 12 in the Attock district, eight in the Chakwal district, and three in the Jhelum district. Notably, the colleges offered for sale in the Rawalpindi district include Kahuta Dupri, Murree Phagwari, and the Girls Degree College located in Chakri -- the constituency of former interior minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan. All these colleges will be transferred to NGOs during the summer break. The necessary preparations for privatising the colleges have been finalised, and applications have been sought from NGOs, private school owners and educated youth. Professor Ilyas Qureshi, the PPLA’s founder, has warned that the privatisation of colleges would have detrimental consequences, make higher education expensive and stop poor students from pursuing education beyond matriculation. “Our education system will be reduced to only producing clerks, mechanics, helpers, and peons,” he feared.