MURREE: Student organisations in Murree have welcomed the establishment of Kohsar University but said they will not allow any change in the status of a historic college in the area.

They said they had also struggled for the establishment of the university in Murree.

Government Degree College Murree was established in 1960 and 1,200 students of the college passed the intermediate exam this year.

The students also have the right to pursue higher education but if the historic college and another degree college are merged into the university, the future of the students would be at a stake.

Poor and low income parents cannot afford to educate their children in other cities, said Osama Saeed Abbasi, assistant secretary Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba north Punjab, Sikandar Abbasi, Abdul Hadi Abbasi, Kaush Abbasi and other students while speaking to the local media.

They demanded that the status of Government Degree College should be maintained, adding focus should be on the construction of a building for the Kohsar University and not on the merger of the colleges.

They also condemned a ban on admissions in the colleges, adding more than 400 students from Murree, Kotli Satyan and surrounding areas took admission in the colleges every year and their future should not endangered.

They demanded that the university campus should be set up at Punjab House till the completion of the university building.

The student organisations would hold a protest against the merger of the colleges on September 30, they said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2020