PESHAWAR, Dec 4 The Islamia College University (ICU) is facing shortage of funds to meet its requirements, sources say.

They said the scarcity of funds had put the future of the university at risk. They said the fund provided to the university was insufficient because its constituent institutes, including the Islamia College and the Islamia Colligate School, also depended on it.

When contacted, ICU vice-chancellor Ajmal Khan said “We will obtain loan from bank to run the university if the government fails to provide the required amount.”

About other options to save the university from collapse, he hinted at increasing student fees. However, he added, the increase in fee would be a burden on poor students.

When asked about the incomes and expenditures of the college and the school affiliated with the university, he said the college earned Rs15 million annually and its expenditure was Rs55 million. Similarly, he said, the Islamia Colligate School was earning Rs30 million and its expenditure was Rs60 million per annum.

“The college and the school have become a liability for the ICU,” a professor told Dawn, requesting not to be named.

The Higher Education Commission has pledged Rs100 million to the ICU in instalments, which the sources said would be insufficient to run a new university. Of the pledged amount, the HEC has released Rs40 million so far.

On one hand the HEC-allocated amount for the university was insufficient and on the other, most of the fund was being utilised on the Islamia College and the Islamia Colligate School.

“We can't stress on the HEC to provide fund for the ICU's constituent college and school because these institutes are the domain of the provincial government,” the professor said.Though the provincial government upgraded the historic Islamia College Peshawar to the level of university, it failed to pay any heed to its requirements and did not provide any fund to it after establishment, he further said.

The university administration time and again demanded that the ANP-led provincial government should provide Rs150 million to the institute so that it could fulfil its requirements, but to no avail.

For the last more than a year, the requirements of the both institutes were being fulfilled from the fund of the university, he maintained.

He said that besides the HEC, the provincial government usually released a huge sum to new universities to support them in the early days, adding it provided around Rs150 million to each newly-established university, including the Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan and the Bannu University. However, he said, it didn't pay a single penny to the ICU.

Before upgradation of the Islamia College to the level of university, it along with the Islamia Colligate was affiliated with the University of Peshawar, which provided Rs210 million to it annually.