KARACHI: “Islamia College bachao committee” convener Muhammad Mubin has appealed to President Mamnoon Hussain to save the historic college from eviction.
While talking to a delegation of Islamia College students, Mubin said, “President Mamnoon Hussain can play a role through a presidential ordinance, that can save the college, bring it under the federal government’s jurisdiction and also upgrade it to a university level in order that the college, having the status of a national heritage, can be saved and apprehensions of the students and their parents removed.”
He informed the delegation that the college was spread over an area of 26,000 square yards or five acres.
“MA Jinnah Road is on one side of the college while Jigar Muradabadi Road is on its other side, indicating the importance of its location. The college provides both arts and commerce (morning and evening shifts) under one roof. Besides, it also houses Islamia Science College and the Qureshi High School,” said Mubin.
He further said that the college complex was a heritage site and that it consisted of three stories, adding that it was the country’s biggest college with 192 rooms, fifteen departments and modern science laboratories with latest equipment, a library having over 60,000 books and other facilities, he said.
It may be mentioned here that the All India National Congress meeting of 1934 was held at the plot of this college and Congress leader Mahatma Gandhi had also attended that meeting. The graves of two prominent religious scholars Syed Suleman Nidvi and Maulana Shabir Ahmed Usmani are also situated within the jurisdiction of the Islamia college complex.
The college was inaugurated by President Ayub Khan in August 1961. The alumni of the college include famous names like legendary cricketers Shahid Afridi and Zaheer Abbas; Hassan Askari, Muhammad Yaqub, Nisar Ahmed Sheikh, Nasrullah Shaji, Mustafa Kamal, cricketers Asif Mujtaba, Azim Hafeez, Rizwan Uz Zaman, Anil Dalput and Olympian Munawwar-uz-Zaman.
