Govt forms panel to look into Edwardes College issues.

PESHAWAR -- The government has formed a six-member committee to look into the issues plaguing educational standards at the historical Edwardes College, Peshawar, and find a 'workable solution'.

The committee headed by the commissioner of Peshawar division will submit the report to the chief minister within 15 days.

A notification issued by the Chief Minister's Secretariat on Oct 28 said the committee formed on the directions of CM Mahmood Khan comprised the commissioner of Peshawar division as its convener, secretary of the higher education department, principal of the Edwardes College or his nominee, retired bureaucrat Hifzur Rehman, secretary of Peshawar diocese Dr Sarah Safdar and any co-opted member recommended by it.

Committee will suggest 'workable solution' to declining educational standards

Sources told Dawn that the government was under immense pressure of the federal government and international community to place the college established in 1900 under the supervision of the diocese of Peshawar.

The committee's formation comes in the wake of a Peshawar High Court judgement, which recently declared that the Edwardes College was nationalised through the Privately Managed School and Colleges (Taking Over) Regulation, 1972, which was validated by the 1973 Constitution.

A high court bench headed by a senior judge, Qaiser Rasheed, accepted a petition filed by the college's faculty members on Nov 1 but expressed concern about the college's declining educational standards and asked the government to look into it for corrective measures.

It observed that the students used to be vying eagerly to get admission in this college due to its highest educational standards and merit but suddenly, things had come to such an abysmal state in which the students migrated to other colleges to save their future due to deteriorating educational standards and poor results in board and university exams.

The college's administration and teachers remained involved in a legal wrangling for many months over the administrative status of the college.

Meanwhile, senior faculty members have expressed reservations about the formation of the committee and told the chief minister in a letter that in light of the high court's judgment, the 1974 notified board of governors was the only lawful, legitimate and effective grievance redressal...