The Crippled ‘Malala Centre for Excellence in Gender Studies’

Ghu­lam Rab­bani Lod­hi
Haripur

The Malala Cen­tre for Excel­lence in Gen­der Stud­ies was start­ed in 2011 at Gov­ern­ment Post­grad­u­ate Col­lege, Haripur and a four years BS pro­gramme in the dis­ci­pline of Gen­der Stud­ies was launched imme­di­ate­ly. This was the first such insti­tu­tion in Khy­ber Pakhtunkhawa which was named after the icon­ic Malala Yousafzai. The Cen­tre got affil­i­a­tion with Haz­ara Uni­ver­si­ty for aca­d­e­m­ic degrees and around twen­ty five stu­dents are cur­rent­ly enrolled in the BS Pro­gramme.

Since its incep­tion the Cen­tre has been neglect­ed by the gov­ern­ment and the col­lege admin­is­tra­tion. The Cen­tre was start­ed in a sin­gle class room with­out any per­ma­nent fac­ul­ty. The fac­ul­ty was hired on year­ly basis. Although the Sec­re­tary of high­er edu­ca­tion KPK Farah Bin­mourya, ini­tial­ly took a per­son­al inter­est in the suc­cess­ful func­tion­ing of the Cen­tre but has not fol­lowed it up since then. It’s regret­table that the all-female staff of the Cen­tre has not been paid salaries for more than six months due to pet­ty bureau­crat­ic hur­dles despite many efforts by the prin­ci­pal of the col­lege. It is feared that if time­ly inter­ven­tion is not made for the release of salaries, the aca­d­e­m­ic work at the Cen­tre will be affect­ed bad­ly.

Ear­li­er Ms. Jameela Gillani, (Ex-MNA, ANP) had grant­ed Rs. 337500 out of her devel­op­men­tal funds for the con­struc­tion of the Cen­tre. The said amount was shift­ed to oth­er projects on the instruc­tions of the Prime Min­is­ter with­out giv­ing any sat­is­fac­to­ry rea­son. The deci­sion to divert funds was tak­en after ini­tial for­mal­i­ties had been final­ized by the offi­cials and engi­neers of Tehsil Munic­i­pal Admin­is­tra­tion, Haripur. The staff and stu­dents of Gov­ern­ment Post­grad­u­ate Col­lege, Haripur have expressed deep resent­ment over fed­er­al government’s deci­sion to with­draw funds for the con­struc­tion of Malala Cen­tre in the col­lege cam­pus.

It is demand­ed by stu­dents and the staff that the Cen­tre should be giv­en due atten­tion and funds for the con­struc­tion of a sep­a­rate build­ing should be released with­out any delay. The Cen­tre is a great ini­tia­tive but could go to waste if not res­cued.

(Pub­lish in The Laal­tain — May 2013)