ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s dream university, Al-Qadir Institute, has only enrolled 100 students two years after its establishment, a media report said on Monday.
The PTI Chairman’s varsity, established in 2021 in Sohawa, Jhelum, has still not been recognised as a university by the Punjab government, The News reported.
In its first year, Al-Qadir gave admissions to 41 students, while in the second year, only 60 students were enrolled by it. The institute charges fees from its students despite being registered as a trust. All sorts of expenses of Al-Qadir Trust are being taken care of by a big businessman, as per their agreement, which was reported earlier in The News.
One of the trustees of Al-Qadir Institute, Arif Nazir Butt shared that Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) has not yet granted degree-awarding status to Al-Qadir Institute, and the institute is still affiliated with the Government College University, offering only two programmes, Management Sciences and Islamic Studies.
“The process is in its final stages and soon degree-awarding status will be granted to us,” claimed Arif. Amjadur Rehman, who is In-charge of Al-Qadir Institute, admitted that the institute had so far enrolled only 100 students. “In the first batch, we enrolled 40 students, and 60 more were enrolled in the second batch; 20 in Islamic Studies and 40 in Management Sciences,” he explained.
When questioned if they charge fees from students, Amjad said that only 10 per cent of the total students are charged fees. Explaining further, Amjad said: “Fee is charged so that students remain motivated towards studies and the institution itself becomes independent. Al-Qadir Institute wants independence from donations.”
Initially, the top businessman had donated 458 kanals of land to Al-Qadir Institute which, according to the stamp paper, was valued at 244 million PKR in 2019.
The land was transferred first to Zulfi Bukhari, who later transferred it to the trust after its creation in January 2021. The land is located in Mouza Bakrala, Tehsil Sohawa, district Jhelum. The acknowledgment agreement of the donated land was signed between Bushra Khan (on behalf of Al-Qadir University) and the donor, while Imran Khan (chairman of Al Qadir University) was holding the Prime Minister’s Office, The News reported.
From January 2021 to December 2021, the trust received donations of 180 million PKR. From July 2020 to June 2021, the total income of the trust was 101 million pkr, whereas the total expenditure including salaries of the staff and workers was around 8.58 million PKR only.
More importantly, the former premier had registered the trust for the Al-Qadir University Project on December 26, 2019, within a few weeks of his cabinet decision regarding a housing society, which later became the donor for the university, The News reported. The NCA England closed an investigation against the CEO of the housing society and around �140 million were repatriated to Pakistan from the top businessman’s account abroad.
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