PESHAWAR: The fate of FATA University in Darra Adamkhel, Kohat district, which has been running without top administration for months, leaving lecturers and utility bills unpaid, highlights the problems the neglected region continues to face two years after it was meant to become a part of the mainstream of the country.
Opened in 2016, the sole university in tribal districts was established under the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) University Regulation, which along with other laws of the region was invalidated by FATA’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2018. As the university’s chief executive was appointed under the old regulation, his tenure could not be extended and there is no clarity who and how should succeed him.
“My tenure ended March 4, 2020 and since then my replacement couldn’t be appointed,” the university’s ex-vice chancellor, Prof. Tahir Shah, said, “The entire academic staff hasn’t received their monthly salaries since then.”
According to Dr. Adeel Rahim, management sciences professor at the university, the provincial government is undecided whether to extend Shah’s tenure or appoint a new vice chancellor, which results in there being no authority to sign utility bills and cheques.
“The vice chancellor cannot get an extension as per the rules. But we are considering options such as giving additional duties to any vice chancellor from other universities to look into the affairs of FATA University,” Hassan Mehmood Yousafzai, secretary at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s higher education department, told Arab News.
The laws on which the university was established are no longer applicable, he said, adding that the issue would be resolved as soon as possible.
Locals and analysts say, the catch faced by the university is the tip of the iceberg of the challenges the region has been grappling with across the entire sectors of health, education, judiciary and law enforcement, since the merger of the erstwhile FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Irfan-u-Din, senior research fellow at FATA Research Center (FRC) Islamabad, told Arab News that the major problems in tribal districts are growing unemployment, lack of access to basic facilities such as water, education, health, and a rise in terrorism-related incidents.
Another problem, he said, is that neither the provincial nor the federal government have taken any steps to ensure socioeconomic development of the long-neglected region.
FRC data shows that 74 percent of people in tribal districts voted in favor of the merger which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was expected to advance their standard of living.
Last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to spend Rs100 billion annually in the span of 10 years for the tribal area to witness unprecedented development and prosperity. But it still remains to be seen.
Malik Salahuddin Afridi, a tribal elder from Khyber district, said no development has been there so far.
“Bureaucracy creates hurdles, keeping the new system destabilized,” he said, “We are being treated by every department like aliens.”