The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a law on Thursday, upgrading the Sindh Madressatul Islam (SMI) School as a university. Senior Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq said the SMI, which has been running since 1875, was a pioneer Muslim educational institution and maintained the distinction of being the alma mater of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He said the SMI’s founder, Hassan Ali Effendi, the great grandfather of President Asif Ali Zardari, was inspired by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s struggle to impart modern education to Muslims. The minister said although many schools were elevated to the status of universities following the partition, “the mother of all academic institutes” was not upgraded. The PPP leader said the government had fulfilled the promise of the slain party chairperson Benazir Bhutto, who wanted to grant the institute the status of a university during her tenure. MQM’s Syed Sardar Ahmed, while tracing the SMI’s history, said that after occupation of Sindh in 1843, the British chose to divide and rule, creating hurdles for Muslims. He said that Effendi was granted permission by the colonial rulers to establish the institute at a vacant plot after much difficulty. Sardar said Effendi believed in tolerance and harmony and established two separate mosques for Sunnis and Shias on the SMI premises. The MQM leader urged the government to allocate land for the SMI University at the proposed Education City in Karachi. The provincial minister also stressed for merit-based admission. Jam Tamachi Unar stressed that a proper infrastructure and qualified faculty were needed. However, he suggested improving the state of affairs at existing universities before establishing new ones. Another PPP legislator, Anwar Mahar, echoed Tamachi’s views by saying that a “university should also look like a real university”. He said the Sufi University had been established in Bhitt Shah, but did not resemble a university. Mahar said
the Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College in Sukkur faced tremendous difficulties in gaining recognition from the PMDC. He also called for allocating more funds for universities. Dr Ahmed Ali Shah shared his concerns by saying that faculty should be selected on merit. Culture minister Sassui Palijo said she had a great attachment with the SMI as several intellectuals of the region had studied there. PML-F’s Nusrat Abbasi said there should be no discrimination in granting admissions to the university and the institute must be free from political interference. She said since there were many faculties at the SMI, it would be advisable to appoint three MPAs as members of its syndicate. Sports Minister Dr Muhammad Ali Shah said the SMI was the only place where Pakistan’s cricketers would practice nets in the past. An amendment, moved by Dr Sikander Mandhro, was also approved unanimously, thus increasing one more faculty of information technology at the SMI University. Munwar Abbasi, Shama Mithani, Shahnaz Begum, Humera Alwani, Zareen Majid, Bachal Shah, Shamim Ara, Saleem Khokhar, Abdul Razzaq Rahimoon, Ghulam Muhammad Shahliani, Shazia Marri, Nadeem Bhutto, Makhdoom Jamil, Abdul Sattar Rajpar, Zahid Bhurghari and Ayaz Soomro also spoke in favour of the bill.
