Commerce institute for women lacks basic facilities.

Byline: Chaudhry Ejaz Mahmood

BAHAWALNAGAR -- The Institute of Commerce for Women, Bahawalnagar, founded in 1987, lacks basic facilities such as a building since the past 32 years and the students and teachers of the institute are facing multiple problems due to this.

According to students, their parents and teachers, the institute was based in several rented buildings up till 2012 and in the same year, on the instructions of former director colleges of Bahawalpur Mahmoodul Hassan, the Punjab Higher Education Department shifted the institute to a hall of the commerce college for boys. They said that since then the institute was operating from the hall of the boys college.

This unique college, operating inside a hall, has shelves erected to make separate room for the clerical staff and on the other end of the hall, curtains separate the hall from a staff room. The third corner also has curtains to separate it from the principal's office and the fourth corner in used as a store room to house unused materials. A large portion of the remaining space has 22 computers, while the remaining space constitutes classrooms.

Female students told Dawn that the building that looks like a chicken shed does not have drinking water and toilets facility and they have to use boys toilets. A student of DCom said that the small space houses both DCom part I and II students. She said that for the past one week, electricity supply for the hall had been disconnected. She said this had shutdown their computer lab and also exacerbated the problems faced by them.

Teachers and parents said that for the past many years, the district administration as well as the director of colleges had been reminded to provide a building for the institute but all in vain. They demanded that the Bahawalpur director colleges provide basic facilities as well as a building for the institute.

- Dawn photos

Institute of...