Mehran University’s sub-campus remains on paper nearly nine years after inauguration; land offered free by Muhammad Mian Soomro still unused.
LARKANA/JACOBABAD: Poor but talented students in Jacobabad have been let down by the Sindh government, residents say, as a university campus inaugurated in the name of promoting higher technical education has amounted to little more than a plaque and paper promises nearly nine years on.
Mehran University of Engineering and Technology’s (MUET) campus in the district has still not materialised, leaving the future of thousands of students uncertain.
On February 20, 2018, the then Vice Chancellor of Mehran University, Professor Dr Aslam Aqili, formally inaugurated the campus by cutting a ribbon at the Government Commercial College building in Jacobabad, and Syed Farman Ali Shah was appointed its first Pro Vice Chancellor.
Three acres of land were required to build the campus, but only 86,912 square feet, about two acres, was available at the time. Recognising the need, former federal minister and MNA Muhammad Mian Soomro formally offered to donate his personal land near Qureshi Pump to the university free of charge. However, no progress was made because of the administration’s inaction.
According to reliable sources, the government had formally released Rs90 million to start initial work on the campus, build infrastructure and purchase necessary equipment.
Because of the inattention, inaction and incompetence of the university administration and district bureaucracy, the sources said, the money was not used in time, and the entire Rs90 million lapsed and was returned to the national exchequer.
Expressing grief and anger, Jacobabad’s civil society, traders, lawyers, student organisations and citizens said that travelling to Jamshoro or other distant cities for an engineering education was beyond the means of poor and middle-class families. Without a local campus, they said, only wealthy families could afford technical education, while ordinary students were left behind.
The complaints echo those in neighbouring Larkana, where residents say billions in development claims have failed to deliver basic facilities. In Larkana, too, three doctors sent abroad for PhDs in 2016 have not returned, raising similar questions about how public education funds are used in upper Sindh.
Citizens demanded that the Sindh Chief Minister, the Sindh Education Minister, the HEC Chairman and the Vice Chancellor of Mehran University, Jamshoro, immediately activate the Jacobabad campus and begin construction on the land offered by Muhammad Mian Soomro. They also called for the officials responsible for letting the Rs90 million lapse to be identified and for strict legal action to be taken against them.
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