RAWALPINDI: The Government Postgraduate College in Asghar Mall started in 1913 as the Sanatan Dharma High School. Sanatan dhrama means seven religions. The school was upgraded to a college in 1948 and given its current name so that it became the first government-run college in Rawalpindi division.

The college is currently offering five master programmes in English, Urdu, Mathematics, Geography and Economics.

Students of the geography department have secured 20 gold medals in Punjab University examinations over the last few years and its students have also secured second, third and fourth positions in board exams.

However, the department has faced neglect from successive governments and has not been upgraded. The rest of the departments also lack state-of-the-art facilities.

The college principal, Prof Rana Mohammad Hafiz Khan, told this agency that the history of the college goes back to more than a century.

Prof Khan said the shortage of facilities has led to problems in the smooth running of the college’s affairs including a lack of teachers.

The economics department currently has four teachers of whom two are set to retire next year. To add to the problem, almost 35 members of the teaching staff were sent from this college to others. There is just one teacher in the computer science department, which caters to 700 students.

Prof Khan said there were some 50,000 books in the library, including rare editions including some from the library of Gurdwara Rai Bahadur Sardar Soojan in Bagh Sardaran, one of the oldest religious heritage buildings left in the garrison city after the partition. He said all these books have been housed in some 170 cupboards and cannot be looked after properly due to lack of funds.

There are two libraries in the college, one in the postgraduate block and the other in Jinnah Block.

Prof Khan said both the libraries are run by clerks as the librarian retired some time ago and no other librarian has been hired since.

The college is also facing many other problems including supply of electricity and water.

Prof Khan urged the relevant authorities to take notice and to also recover 26 kanals of the college land which have been encroached on.

Published in Dawn, October 29th , 2018

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