Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Funds amounting to Rs 1.6 billion have been released for the construction of FATA University in Dara Adamakhel region of Frontier Region (FR) Kohat. Talking to Daily Times, Assistant Director Liaqat Khan at Fata Secretariat on Tuesday said that initially the FATA University would operate in Dara Adamkhel Degree College in FR Kohat region.

He said beside 466 kanals of land have been purchased where the university will be constructed overfive years. The Director further elaborated that the university will formally inaugurate in September 2106 with four departments: Political Science, Sociology, Mathematics and Management Science.

Liaqat Khan said that Search Committee has appointed Tahir Shah as the Vice Chancellor (VC), a retired professor from National Centre of Excellence Geology Department University of Peshawar (UoP). As per the documents available with Daily Times, the president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardar for the first time extended the Higher Education Commission ordinance to FATA for the establishment of the FATA University. In 2011, he constituted a search committee for the appointment of the VC and project director other staff for the university but the project could not implemented.

In the light of the search committee, Shafiqu Rehman, professor at the UoP was appointed as the project director and VC for the FATA University but the law Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) declared the appointment unlawful.

The department argued that the appointment has been made prior to university regulation 2013 act and termed the search committee unconstitutional. Pleading anonymity, officials of the Planning and Development Branch at FATA Secretariat told to Daily Times that the fund for the purchasing of land and construction of the university has been delayed time and again.

“In the first phase Rs.4.70 million has been released for FATA University,” the director added. He also said the college was the property of the FATA University which had been destroyed in a bomb blast, adding that the building has been renovated and modified and governor KP Zafar Iqbal Jagra would soon inaugurate the FATA University.

Tahir Shah VC of the Fata University said that according to the rules laid down in the statute of the university students from any part of the country could submit applications for admission, not just those from tribal areas.