Imran Khan’s dream ‘university’ enrols only 100 students in two years

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan’s dream university, Al-Qadir Institute, has still not been recognised as a university, and has managed to enrol only a handful of students.

After two years of its establishment in the year 2021, Al-Qadir Trust Institute has so far managed to enrol only 100 students. In its first year, Al-Qadir gave admissions to 41 students, while in the second year, only 60 students were enrolled by it.

Interestingly, despite being registered as a trust, the institute also charges fees from its students. All sorts of expenses of Al-Qadir Trust are being taken care of by a big businessman, as per their agreement, which was reported earlier in The News.

One of the trustees of Al-Qadir Institute, Dr Arif Nazir Butt told The News that Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) has not yet granted degree-awarding status to Al-Qadir Institute, and the institute is still affiliated with the Government College University, offering only two programmes, Management Sciences and Islamic Studies. “The process is in its final stages and soon degree-awarding status will be granted to us,” claimed Dr Arif.

Dr Amjadur Rehman, who is In-charge of Al-Qadir Institute, when contacted by this correspondent, admitted that the institute had so far enrolled only 100 students. “In the first batch, we enrolled 40 students, and 60 more were enrolled in the second batch; 20 in Islamic Studies and 40 in Management Sciences,” he explained.

When questioned if they charge fees from students, Dr Amjad said that only 10 per cent of the total students are charged fees.

Explaining further, Dr Amjad said, “Fees is charged so that students remain motivated towards studies and the institution itself becomes independent. Al-Qadir Institute wants independence from donations.”

Initially, the top businessman had donated 458 kanals of land to Al-Qadir Institute which, according to the stamp paper, was valued at Rs244 million in 2019.

The land was transferred first to Zulfi Bukhari, who later transferred it to the Trust after its creation in January 2021. The land is located in Mouza Bakrala, Tehsil Sohawa, district Jhelum.

The acknowledgement agreement of the donated land was signed between Mrs Bushra Khan (on behalf of Al-Qadir University) and the donor, while Imran Khan (chairman of Al Qadir University) was holding the Prime Minister’s Office.

From Jan 2021 to Dec 2021, the trust received donations of Rs180 million. From July 2020 to June 2021, the total income of the trust was Rs101 million, whereas the total expenditure including the salaries of the staff and workers was around Rs8.58 million only.

More importantly, ex-PM Imran Khan had registered the Trust for Al-Qadir University Project on Dec 26, 2019 within a few weeks of his cabinet decision regarding a housing society, which later became the donor for the university.

Three weeks before the registration of the trust on Dec 2, 2019, the Imran Khan cabinet took up the matter concerning Accounts Freezing Orders (AFOs) and repatriation of funds to Pakistan by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The NCA England closed an investigation against the CEO of the housing society and around 140 million pounds were repatriated to Pakistan from the top businessman’s account abroad.

Later, almost £140m was repatriated to Pakistan, but the money landed in the SC’s Account in National Bank of Pakistan. It raised questions whether money was to be transferred to government accounts or was to be deposited in SC accounts as the businessman had agreed to pay Rs460 billion to the SCP.

In the very next month of registration of the Trust deed in Islamabad sub-registrar’s office, the housing society purchased land around 460-kanal in Jhelum and transferred it in the name of Zulfi Bukhari.

On March 24, 2021, the donation of land, along with other donations like infrastructure and other provisions by the housing society, were acknowledged through an agreement, signed between Bushra Bibi and the housing society at Imran Khan’s residence, while Khan was holding the prime minister’s office. (The News)