Daily Times

Students and employees in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) are facing immense issues in finding suitable accommodation due to expensive and non-affording hostels with the least facilities of security, water and quality food.

Talking to APP, Hassan Ali, a student of a private university, said that educational institutions were giving admissions in both morning and evening shifts but they do not facilitate and accommodate the students coming from far-flung areas. He said hostels outside the university were set up in residential areas and despite that, they were “expensive and unaffordable”. He said an average shared room costs Rs12,000 to 18,000 which lacks privacy and “only includes breakfast and dinner”.

Another student, Hamza Zahoor, said that students were unable to find hostels nearby the university campus and along with hostel charges, they had to bear the travelling expenses. He said students coming from middle-class family afford university expenses with difficulty while hostel and travelling expenses were “difficult to manage”. A student of BS first semester, Iram Amjad told APP that boys can manage their accommodation by renting a shared flat, however females face serious problems due to security concerns and good hostels were expensive or located at a long distance from the institution.

When contacted, hostel owner in the G-9 Sector Azam Khan said that during the recent inflation wave, “the rent of the buildings had increased multiple times and utility bills are much higher than before”. He said the electricity bill on average was Rs50,000 and other day-to-day expenses and building rent were additional.

Azam said due to a shortage of natural gas in winter, cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) were an extra expense. He further said that students leave the hostel during semester breaks and the “owner has to bear the building rent” due to which hostel owners keep a margin to avoid the loss on off days of universities.

When contacted, Capital Development Authority (CDA) official Sheraz Khan told APP that it was illegal to set up private hostels in the residential area due to banned commercial activity in residential sectors. He said CDA receives complaints of such illegal hostels and action is taken against the owner of the house. He said such owner face issues with obtaining no objection certificates (NoC) and transfers along with sealing the property.