KHYBER AGENCY - Students who recently passed Secondary School Certificate exams on Tuesday staged protest demonstration against lack of seats in Government Degree College, Landi Kotal.

Large numbers of the students, who had been denied admission by the college administration, gathered at Pak-Afghan highway in front of the college gate. They stopped vehicular traffic on the highway and chanted slogans against officials of the Fata Secretariat and local administration.

The protesting students said that majority of them were from poor families and could not afford admission in private educational institutions.

Population and education ratio has been increasing every year but ironically, seats at the college remain the same as in 1970, which is equivalent to depriving the tribal youth of higher education, the protesters argued.

They demanded of the concerned authorities to have mercy on them, address their misery and take appropriate and immediate steps to adjust them in the college.

Later, after assurance of the local administration, the protesters ended their protest and the traffic resumed subsequently.

According to the college principal, a total of 250 seats for first year students, 50 seats each for pre-medical and pre-engineering, and 120 seats for the arts group, had been already filled on merit.

He further said that the college administration had received 675 forms for admission. Besides lack of the seats, the college had been facing shortage of class rooms and teaching staff, which he said needed attention of the high ups. The principal suggested starting second shift in the college to permanently resolve the admission issue.