THE tug of war between the KP government and the Lahore Diocesan Trust Association (LDTA) to have control over the affairs of historic Edwards College, continues as the meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG), Edwards College Peshawar held with the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman in the chair at Governor’s House Wednesday remained inconclusive once again.
In fact the agenda of the meeting including administrative, financial and other affairs of the institution could not be discussed due to the absence of the representatives of the Lahore Diocesan Trust Association LDTA which has reservations over the control of the affairs of Edwards college, being missionary institution, by the BoG some of them designated by the Governor KP.
“The LDTA conveyed regret 3rd time that its representative could not attend the meeting despite official invitation well before time”. Said an official hand out issued from the Governor house KP Thursday It said the BoG meeting was convened 3rd time in light of the directives of the Supreme Court because BoG is a relevant and authentic forum to take/approve decisions in all affairs of the institution.
The Governor, as the handout maintained, while showing his disappointment over the non- serious attitude of the LDTA has said that we have keen interest to run the affairs of the Edward College in light of the Supreme Court directives but due to continuously absence of the LDTA the affairs of the historical institution are not being discussed in BoG meeting, that was also attended by Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Higher Education and Information & PRs Kamran Bangash and all members of the Board of Directors.
However, the ultimate sufferers in this episode are the poor students of the Edwards College specially those following BS programs as inconsistency in their classes specially the exams are subjecting them to great agony. It may be mentioned that the affairs of historic Edwards College are being run on adhoc basis since there is no principal of this prestigious institutions for the last over an year and a retired teacher of the College who is more than eighty years of age has been asked to look after the affairs of the college in the capacity of acting Principal.
More over internal politics in the college, that appears to be beyond the control of the incumbent head, as well as the interference in the college affairs by some top government functionaries are also badly affecting the performance of the college that once used to be the top most educational institution of the province and people used to take pride to be the student of Edwardes College Peshawar.
